Vikas Kumar takes charge as third Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief

Vikas Kumar, a 1988-batch officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service, on Friday assumed charge as the new managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), officials said.

The Delhi government on Wednesday had appointed Kumar as the successor of Mangu Singh, who on Thursday bid an emotional farewell to the DMRC after an illustrious career of 25 years at the urban transporter, including the last decade as its top boss.

Singh was the managing director of DMRC since January 1, 2012, and his famed tenure ended on Thursday.

Kumar is the third managing director of the DMRC after E Sreedharan and Mangu Singh, officials said.

He will hold the post for a term of five years, as per an official order issued by the transport department of the Delhi government.

"Vikas Kumar has taken charge today as the new Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation," a DMRC spokesperson said on Friday.

Kumar, who was holding the position of the Director (Operations) in the DMRC, has over three decades of experience in rail-based urban transportation projects, the DMRC said in a statement on Thursday.

He has worked with the Indian Railways in various capacities before joining the DMRC in September 2004. He has been associated with the urban transporter for more than 17 years in key management positions, it said.

In the DMRC, Kumar has headed the operations wing of the organisation since 2007 in various leadership capacities, such as general manager (operations), executive director (operations) and director (operations). He has played a key role in ensuring the smooth commencement of metro services in Delhi-NCR.

"Kumar was instrumental in the setting up of DMRC's wholly-owned subsidiary company 'Delhi Metro Last Mile Services Limited' for provision of last-mile services to and from metro stations. He has also provided consultancy services to the Dhaka Metro project as its Operations and Maintenance Rules expert. This apart, he has been involved in providing consultancy for various metro projects in India, such as in Jaipur, Kochi, Noida-Greater Noida, Mumbai, etc," the statement said.

He has travelled across the world to get exposure to the latest technologies and management strategies employed by rail-based urban transit systems, the officials said.

"Kumar has been DMRC's Senior Benchmarking Representative to deal with TSC (Transport Strategy Centre), Imperial College, London, which is the coordinating agency for the CoMET (Community of Metros). DMRC is a member of CoMET which is a benchmarking group of large and medium-sized metros from across the world," it said.

Kumar has also been the recipient of various awards while serving in the Indian Railways and the DMRC, such as the General Manager's Award, Operations Shield (in Indian Railways) and the Managing Director's Award (in DMRC).

A graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Roorkee (now IIT-Roorkee), he has done his Masters in opto-electronics and optical communications from IIT-Delhi. Apart from being academically meritorious, Kumar was also involved in swimming and badminton as a student, the officials added.