Bengaluru: Senior bureaucrat and the Managing Director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) or 'Namma Metro, Pradeep Singh Kharola, on Tuesday was appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of disinvestment-bound national carrier Air India, the central government announced on Tuesday.
The state government has given its consent to relieve Mr Kharola for central deputation as CMD, Air India. “The government is yet to appoint Kharola's successor,” said an official source.
Mr Kharola, an IAS officer of 1985 batch, is known for his expertise in public transport and holds a PhD in the subject from IIT-Delhi. During his more than four-year-stint as Metro chief (from August 10, 2013 till now) he supervised the final execution of the Phase-1 network of Metro, which stretches for over 42 km and was opened in June this year and oversaw the completion of underground tunneling work and the East-West Corridor. He is now overseeing the commissioning of the second phase; of 72 km, which would connect Bengaluru's tech hubs - Electronics city to Whitefield by 2020.
BMRCL is the second longest operational metro network in India after the Delhi metro.
Mr. Kharola has been handpicked to head Air India at a time, when the government is in the process of finalising the modalities of the strategic disinvestment of the national carrier. In his earlier assignments, as Chairman, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), Mr. Kharola had pushed for building infrastructure across the City with the help of private partnership and in 2000, had revived Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) from a loss making entity to a profitable one. He was behind the introduction of air conditioned buses in Bengaluru. He was the principal secretary to BJP Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar during 2012-13.
He has served at the Centre as joint secretary and was part of the Administrative Reforms Commission before he returned to his parent cadre.
