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Metro Rail - A Bad Move?

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Metro RailPublic Transport

This mornings paper confirmed my apprehensions of the Metro Project.

It is really sad to see this shuffling around of people every year almost. A new chief will have to start from scratch again. bring in his own ideas and his own theories which slow down the project.

A project as important, large and in dire need off must be handled with much more rigidity and will power. It seems that the government is not interested in the Metro, and is quite careless and

When Madhu was appointed, Mr Srivastav was asked to leave as he did not involve the government in the decision of the Namma Metro logo! This is the most outrageuos decision I have heard! Who really cares about the logo - when the metro isn't event close to being completed. In Fact metro/govt should ignore ideas such as Logos and "look good" factors until they have something physically in place.

Srivastav was working with a lot of energy and also closely with Sreedharan - who I belive is one of the most useful heads to have for an Infrastructure Project.

When Madhu came in things slowed down, but then as TOI states

"Madhu's appointment to BMRCL was not a normal posting done by politicians at their whims and fancies. His CV was sent to the Union urban development department and scrutinized by a panel of experts. While he was appointed by the state government in March 2006, the approval for his posting came in February 2008. "

So that came as a relief. Now he's gone!

Should governments be allowed to transfer people as and when they please at thier own convenience? It looses credibility in them.

Can Metro and other such large value and dire need projects have a coordination committee that doesn't allow such arbit changes?

I do hope someone takes interest in this project from the government and puts in Back on Track.

Please also note, Madhu had committed to completing the work/mess on Mg Road by December, once there is a new head he will simply blame the previous occupier of the chair and probably put in his own deadlines. There is no way we can hold anyone accountable for the delays.

Comments

murali772's picture

government owes us an explanation

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Yes, it's terrible. Wonder what the government's compulsions were? Whatever, they can't have been higher than public interest. May be it calls for an RTI exercise to find out what the file notings on record are, to act as a deterrent to such apparently arbitrary decisions, atleast in future.

I recall attending a public meeting addressed by Mr Srivastav, the erstwhile MD, some few weeks before his being sacked most unceremoniously. He carried a lot of passion in his work, and appeared totally committed to the job. Such passion cannot be invoked overnight by the new incumbent, however good he may be, and as a result, the project is certainly going to get adversely affected at a heavy cost to the public.

No way for a new government to make a beginning.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
Vasanth's picture

Efficient officers under the whims of Politicians

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Why is our system like this? We are democratic and we are unable to stop what majority of us don'w want. Last time when Yeddi came to power, he had transferred Manivannan from Mysore to Shiomoga which was later on protested by Mysoreans and prevented, this time V.Madhu.

Similar protest like Mysore needs to be done.

narayan82's picture

call for protest

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Can we somehow get a Meeting with Mr Srivastav, gather enough support - and hopefully put pressure on the govt. to bring him back?
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
rnavada's picture

Madhu was slow in my opinion

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(Heard) srivatsa was good and thanks to his networking with delhi babus, the project got started finally. He got fired for the simple reason that he refused to knowtow the gowda clan's dikats( contratror selection, specification alteration etc).  Final straw was when kumarswamy (CM) was not invited to logo unveiling. According to deccan herald, an SMS informed him about his firing orders while in delhi -working on metro!

Madhu; i dont know much about, but do get a feeling he is slow..very slow. to get the police quarters demolished it took him about 6 months! . For roughly a month the bulding was empy!  is CMH road the only road, what about MKK road? only prelimnary notices have been issued. MG road? an excuse  a day! workers are working..people cant make out progress on such large projects..there was some problem now we have sorted it out... Having a chat with TOI on weekly basis does not make him "efficient"

meeting srivatsa? He is currently in Delhi with a central govt. posting.

As citizens , we can raise objections and expose loopholes/delay tactics but we should not be telling WHO should be heading metro.   

why do we assume Mr. Nayak( new head) is going to be slow. And it does not take months to get acclimitazed. They only take key decisions to keep the project on time .

 

blrsri's picture

feel so too!

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In ITPL about 10 full grown trees were transplanted from the parking lot last month because they were constructing a multi level car park  and this was not even in the news!

But where trees were transplanted on MG road for metro last year(or was it 2006?)..it was a craze when the press followed every step..till the trees sprouted and flowered! I can actually pull out the chennai cos address who did the  job!

Nothing against the transplanting..but shouldnt we be more concentrating on completing works for the metro there and freeing up the road  of the barricades? Instead work on MG road has been pathetically slow!

Again not sure if the leadership is responsible for all this or forces otherwise but Sreedharan fought all forces to bring together DMRCL in record time..maybe we need leaders of that stature!

narayan82's picture

rulers

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Sure, I understand that Citizens cannot ask too much, but its pretty simple to assume that If we keep changing the head of an organization it doesn't really provide a stable base for the organization. They could also be something like a Minimum Term of appointing a person. As I said, we could keep exposing loopholes and raising objections, but if the heads keep changing then they are only going to pass the buck to each other. Tried and tested!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
silkboard's picture

We know so little

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I agree with rnavada, we should n't be talking here as to who should be the new head of BMRCL, though criticizing or praising the outgoing past heads (even though we know so little about their pace and methods of working) at our own risk is acceptable.

We know so little about how these projects are executed that people 'in the know' will perhaps pity us when we label praises or accusations on Mr Madhu or Mr Shrivastava. If each and every aspect of BMRCL's functioning was out in the open, we would not be using disclaimers like "I heard", "a little birdie told me" etc.

As Anthoy said in a comment on this old post (Namma Metro and information), these projects are not like installing statues on intersections that you can redo at each change of government. Exposing as much information as possible (minutes of every meeting, every page of every DPR, every proposal, every issue of award, every reason for every delay or postponement) will only work in the interest of the project - fewer accusations later, more input and more public awareness. The thing is, I think, most netas and babus think the telling too much will generate too much "noise" in public forums, and will lead to a delay. That would only be a short term phenomenon, once people get used to seeing too much geeky information about large public projects, things will be just fine.

Nags123's picture

agree with rnavada .. 

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agree with rnavada ..  Though I am not an expert... I feel pace of work on MG road is slow.  We need to have somebody with with good networking skills at Delhi or with upright officer like Manivannan

 

Rgds

 

madhu_nr's picture

Well, my name-sake Mr. Madhu

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Well, my name-sake Mr. Madhu had to go, but I feel his predecessor Mr. Srivatsava appeared to be more proactive and during his limited tenure things seemed to move faster. Anyway, he was also replaced because, as was reported at that time, he 'forgot' to invite the then CM HDK to inaugurate the new BMRCL office in the Shantinagar premises. So, HDK huffed and puffed and blew him over to bring in Mr Madhu in a hurry, whose confirmation came from the centre only a couple of months back...wonder why our Centre takes years to put a tick on a paper...

Don't know who replaces him now, but let's hope he/she learns from Mr. Sreedharan's example in DMRC and goes about it in an efficient and no-nonsense manner. Bangalore needs a metro NOW..... 

Madhu

Madhu

tsubba's picture

Sreedharan's take on the issue

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Namma Metro's troubled course irks Sreedharan, Deccan Herald Metro man E Sreedharan on Friday confirmed the worst fears of Bangaloreans that Namma Metro was running into hurdles right from its inception... The CMD, Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC), who played a major role in conceiving Namma Metro, said that the progress of the project was delayed at the initial stages itself. Acquisition of land was the major problem. Even to cut trees the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) has to take government’s permission, he pointed out during the course of a chat with mediapersons here. “I hope the BMRC will be able to meet the deadline,” he said. Unfortunate transfer Sreedharan termed the recent transfer of BMRC Managing Director V Madhu as “very unfortunate”. The State government recently shifted Madhu from BMRC to the Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation. “I don’t want to comment on the issue, but it is a rather unfortunate and unhappy trend. The State government should not make changes as and when new people come to power. However, the government must have had its compulsions to take such a decision,” he said.
Mithun's picture

Devesh

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Hi Devesh, I am aware that you have been handling the airport portfolio within BCC. Is there any particular person in BCC who has been looking into the portfolio of metro trains? If so, can we involve him/her too here? If there is any such person, it will help us here get a first hand knowledge.
blrsri's picture

Metro Re-look

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We have started on the metro and work is going on with the byappanahalli - mg road stretch..however should we stop and reallign our approach for building this?

There is many discussions on the ridership for BRT etc. Should the ridership decide the future of construction phases of Metro?

The ongoing phase of metro work may not really figure in any ridership study..because its plain evident that it would not cater to many for their daily travel needs. It more looks like a decission based on 'showcasing metro' to visitors on MG road with swanky stations etc..

Instead for the coming phases, it would be a better approach to include the ridership studies to implement the phases. One of the best candidates that come with this study would be the link between City Market and Majestic.

There are too many number of busses which do this journey between market and majestic every minute..hence connecting this with the underground metro would be the best thing to happen immediately. This will avoid all the un-necessary congestion on Cauvery Bhavan road..

s_yajaman's picture

Metro running 9 months late - today's TOI

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What was visible just got confirmed.  The Reach 1 of Namma Metro is running 9 months late. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Bangalore/Metro_Rail_running

This is not good news, but at least was acknowledged.  That is one advantage of change.  If nothing else but to protect one's own backside, a new person will point out problems.

Srivathsa

Drive safe.  It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.

narayan82's picture

not taken seriously enough

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I think the metro project is still a bit of a "joke" to the govt. They havent realised its importance to the city yet! The pace at which work is happening on M G Road for example is dissapointing. Only a handful of workers seem to working on a singular column. I think we saw this delay coming long back! There is no transperency in the process or the progress. if a delay is inevitable, then let it be visible from the start. Needless to say I am sure there is a LOT of lobbying against the metro and I hope the government takes a stand not to fall prey to them and gives us this much needed metro on time!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
blrsri's picture

Getting out of MG road

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News reports today talk about delay on MG road..but does not give exact dates that they are planning now to get out of MG road..

I understand that they need to build the swanky stations at some point..lets just lay the tracks for now and come back later to finish the stations..this can be done even when we are running trains on a trial run!

..this way the traffic will not choke indefinetly on MG road..

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