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.
Forward this Blog entry
Comments
government owes us an explanation
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
Efficient officers under the whims of Politicians
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.
call for protest
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
Madhu was slow in my opinion
(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 .
feel so too!
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!
rulers
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
We know so little
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.
agree with rnavada ..
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
Well, my name-sake Mr. Madhu
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
Sreedharan's take on the issue
Devesh
Metro Re-look
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..
Metro running 9 months late - today's TOI
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.
not taken seriously enough
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
Getting out of MG road
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..