In the recent past, the media have been celebrating the
controversy regarding Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) by reporting every bit of
news and non-news about it – Left, Right and Centre! Being a close observer, I
felt that we as a society need to respond to such issues more creatively rather
than just political gimmicking and forgetting it forever, once media loses
interest in it.
At the outset, let me introduce Mr. E. Sridharan and his background
to put the thoughts in right perspective for the readers of this article.
What we Know/ told in the media time and again:
· Sreedharan is the man who took up the challenge
of building Konkan Railway (which was discarded by British and later by international
infra firms) and completed it on time, rather before time. To achieve this, as
he told many times, he had to build a strong team for execution, who had steel
nerves.
·
He is the man who built a dream, world – class
metro rail (The first of its kind and class in the country) in Delhi, again on
time with very minimum hindrance to an already messy Delhi Traffic. I had
witnessed this personally during my frequent stays in Delhi during 2005 – 2006.
What many people Miss Out:
· He was the person behind Bombay Local Train to
become operational on the third day after the serial blasts. This was
considered impossible by any standards before and after it by Railways’
standards. Way back in an interview published in a daily, Sreedharan thanked
the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for the free hand he had given for
execution, which made all the difference.
·
DMRC was the consultant (Like for KMRL) for
Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited and the day after finalization of the project
concluded, Sreedharan called for a Press Meet and publicly announced his
displeasure in continuing with the project as he accused HMRL of favouritism
and foul play in nexus with Maytas Infra (A Satyam Group Company). The very
next day he was given a defamatory notice by HMRL.
· However, very soon there was India’s largest
corporate fraud exposed through Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju’s confession
about riding a tiger and not able to climb down and along with that the dubious
deals of Maytas also got exposed. Later the whole project was scrapped and as
recently as in 2010, it was re-tendered and L & T has taken the contract.
Two years down the line, the project is progressing in snail’s pace, thanks to
lack of leadership from experts of Sreedharan’s class, with straight forward
attitude.
·
Recently there was a claim by ‘Namma Metro’ of
Bengaluru regarding their learnt expertize and they even claimed that instead
of considering DMRC, KMRL should consider Bengaluru Metro for KMRL execution.
The DMRC was the consultant there and during execution phase ‘Namma Metro’ had
taken the execution job on their own, expelling DMRC citing that ‘Namma Metro’
wanted to build expertize within for future expansion and maintenance (The same
reason being told in the case of KMRL, as well!). The fact of the matter is
that there have been very vicious interventions and there have been 5000 trees
cut for the project, which further dented the climatic equilibrium of Bengaluru
(This was against the primary study and recommendations of DMRC) and in the
process of building expertize, they could complete only 6.7 Kms (15% only) out
of the total 42 Kms proposed. This is against the initial target of 14 Kms set
based on the feasibility study for the phase – 1 (Three years).
Though people, who hear this theory of ‘Expertize Building’,
would definitely fall in for the genuineness of it and nod their heads for it,
they should also be made aware of the above facts. In fact, what makes these
groups of unholy nexus to hate Mr. Sreedharan is the very facts mentioned above
and there are lot of under currents which are flexing its muscles to drive
Sreedharan & DMRC out by hiring few bureaucrats and some political black
sheep.
The moment media drops this issue like a hot cake (which
they had done on several issues with the interventions of powerful PR lobbies),
it will become another Arushi case and another 2G or many such controversies?! So, it is we who can keep this cause alive and
respond continuously till we achieve our right of getting a world – class transport
system.
Tail Piece:
The latest development is that the DMRC had agreed to extend
its support in technical guidance and supervision and Sreedharan would be part
of this team. This seems to be well crafted strategy to eye-wash the public as
there’s a suggestion to constitute a body to define, control and operate the
roles and duties of Sreedharan and his team! The funniest point is that the
constituted body would have people like Sudheer Krishna, Principal Secretary
and other bureaucrats, who had taken clearly sabotaging stands on previous
occasions.
Final Point:
Sreedharan would not be a part of the suggested controlling
body, which decides the roles and duties of his team and this means that Sreedharan
would not have any say in the committee. Obviously, if Sreedharan comes across any
kind of restrictions in his operations, he would publicly react and drop it
like a hot cake (as he had done on previous occasions) and all the conspirers would
become happy as thorn in their flesh gets removed on its own! If he sticks on
despite controls imposed and a reduced role by the above said committee, it
would be suicidal for him, as he will become a scapegoat for any failures and
delays due to the unholy alliances. In both the cases, the project would suffer
multilevel setbacks.
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