Absence of full-time MD has hit metro projects, says Hibi Eden

‘KMRL has been rudderless since its then MD Alkesh Kumar Sharma stepped down’

The State government is contributing to delay in the Kochi metro’s extension to Kakkanad and other areas by not appointing a managing director for Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) , Hibi Eden, MP, said here on Saturday. Principal Secretary K.R. Jyotilal, who has been given additional charge of KMRL, has a whole lot of other State-level responsibilities, with the result that the metro agency has remained orphaned and rudderless since its then MD Alkesh Kumar Sharma was given a new posting, he added. The government and KMRL have been a failure in readying groundwork for the metro’s extension projects, since there is no one responsible to take them ahead. Mr. Jyotilal did not participate in a national conference of metro rail MDs held in New Delhi. Thus, Kerala was the sole State whose metro system went unrepresented at the meeting, said Mr Eden, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development, under which the metro rail systems come.