Delhi govt wants to extend Sreedharan’s term

The Delhi city government has mooted a proposal to give yet another extension in service, this time for three years, to 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan, managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) since its inception.

Sreedharan, 79, has been given numerous extensions in his 13-year stint; he is to now retire in December 2011. He got year’s extension after his latest term ended on December 31, 2010, to ensure he was able to oversee finalisation of the detailed project report of Phase-III of the Metro project in Delhi.

Top sources in the government confirmed a move had been floated to give Sreedharan a three-year term to enable him to also oversee completion of Phase-III, as he’d done with the first two phases.

“As we felt that giving extensions for a year every time would not be acceptable to him, we are pushing for a three-year term,” said a top official in the Delhi government.

Sources also say the city government under Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has had a constructive working relationship with him. Officials say there are concerns that former Union commerce minister Kamal Nath, who recently took charge of the Union urban development ministry, might suggest new names for the MD’s post. The ministry of urban development is the administrative ministry which oversees all Metro rail projects in the country, barring that of Kolkata.

Sreedharan joined Delhi Metro in 1997 for a three-year term. In 2008, the government impelled him to stay back so that he could complete the crucial Phase-II on time, to ensure the various routes were down and running before the Commonwealth Games in October 2010. Sreedharan kept the promise, except for some minor hiccups. In 2009, a fatal accident at a site made him resign, but his offer was not accepted by the Delhi government.

The Phase-III proposal got approval from the Delhi government last year; the Union govrnment has yet to do so and the funding hasn’t been settled either. It includes building six new corridors and 69.57 km of new track, of which more than half would be underground, at an investment of Rs 21,468 crore.