Power secretary Elias George, who will take charge as the new managing director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd on Monday, has two major issues on his list of priorities.
The first, to get the funds sanctioned for the project and the second, to complete the muddled land acquisition process “as early as possible”.
Terming the KMRL’s reported differences with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as “not a big issue”, George, who replaces Tom Jose said: “It’s the outcome that matters in terms of realisation of the project and not the KMRL or the DMRC.”
The new MD has a task right on hand as the MoU designed to hand over the civil works to DMRC is expected to be ready in two weeks. Sources said George would have a one-to-one meet with project chief E. Sreedharan on Monday to chart out guidelines on the project.
The land acquisition procedure, scheduled to be completed by this year-end, is expected to gather pace with chief secretary K. Jayaku-mar, member of the central empowered committee for mass rapid transport systems like the metro rail, joining the new team.
“Though my role is limited at the execution level, I’ll be handling various aspects of land acquisition,” he said.