NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): The Delhi government has selected Vikas Kumar as the Managing Director (MD) of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday, 16th March 2022. He is an officer of the 1988-batch of the Indian Railway Traffic Service and was earlier working as the Executive Director of operations in the DMRC, prior to his current role i.e Director (Operation). Mr. Kumar was appointed on the post of Director (Operations) in DMRC on Dec 1, 2021.
“We found no better person to fit the role of MD, DMRC than the person who has been responsible for the entire operations of the Delhi Metro, which has the largest network in all of India. Now, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is free to discuss the matter with us as we have sent the file to them informing about the Delhi government’s choice. But, it will be difficult for MoHUA also to deny Kumar the position because with the construction of most phases being over, the focus currently is on operations, monitoring and keeping up with the standards of the Delhi Metro,” said a senior Delhi government official, HT reported.
The official notification naming Kumar as the new MD was issued on Wednesday evening, Many government officials were confident that Kumar was likely to receive the nod even before the official notification was released. He will replace Mangu Singh, who will be retiring as MD on March 31, 2022. Singh was only DMRC’s second MD, after E Sreedharan, and took charge on December 31, 2011, and his tenure had been extended several times.
The selection and search for a new MD had to pass through controversies as the Centre had expressed its displeasure over having no representative in the selection committee. In fact last week, MoHUA wrote to the Delhi chief secretary stating that in the past, the selection committee did have representatives from the Centre, including the then secretary in Union ministry of urban development, the Delhi chief secretary and the incumbent MD, E Sreedharan. Whereas the present selection committee is chaired by Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and includes the Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot, an additional chief secretary in the Delhi government and an independent expert.
