'Lack of guidance and team spirit delay Namma Metro'

Metro Man E Sreedharan is right, say sources in the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation. There is slackening of pace in implementation of this multi-crore project, leading to a delay in operations. Many insiders share Sreedharan's view and say his criticism is apt. Most old-timers in the BMRC also agreed with the technocrat's ire at the resignation of BS Sudhir Chandra, director of planning, and DD Pahuja, director of operations, last year. "We miss them. They had tremendous technical expertise. The new persons who came from General Consultants (GC) have little knowledge compared with the former directors.The new director in charge of planning hasn't visited a single station site since he took over," said source. Sreedharan also alleged that General Consultants has no accountability or commitment to the project timeline as they are paid on `man month' basis. A former BMRC employee, who quit as he was upset with political interference, alleged the government has been successful in breaking team spirit at BMRC. "We worked as a team with a passion to deliver a project. But it seems those at the helm don't want us to work as a team, which is why they have meetings only among themselves. There is a lack of guidance after Chandra and Pahuja left the team," he told TOI. One of the primary reasons cited for the delay in the Metro is the rocky terrain under Bengaluru which has damaged tunnel boring machines and halted work on one section for about a year.Sreedharan had been cutting in his remarks, saying, "It's sheer incompetency on the part of technical teams and top brass of the BMRC to have taken one year to fix a damaged tunnelling machine. A similar problem came up with the Delhi Metro too, but we fixed it in 45 days.A new machine was flown down from Singapore and work started up again." `Bureaucrat is as good' I respectfully disagree with E Sreedharan and support my former colleagues N Sivasailam and Pradeep Singh Kharola, the current MD. We all respect Sreedharan and his success with the Delhi Metro and Konkan Railway is an inspiration. But I do not buy the theory that a technocrat can make things work, and a bureaucrat cannot. The DMRC prepared a DPR and was supposed to implement it in Bengaluru too, but the state government thought a Bengaluru model can be developed and formed BMRC. Metro is not just about civil construction but also about engineering, legal issues, land acquisition etc. You need a general administrator who can put everything together, which an IAS officer can do. World over, about 35% manufacturing companies are headed by finance experts. Sivasailam is a very competent man and no one can coordinate better than him. Kharola is also a very competent officer. We must understand that the underground terrain is tough. When we started, people's expectations were high and immediate, so we had to set up the elevated section first. -TOI