Bengaluru: Namma Metro Gets New Leadership, Centre Approves Maheshwar Rao As New Managing Director

The Centre on Thursday (11 January) approved the appointment of senior IAS officer Maheshwar Rao as the new managing director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).

He will replace Anjum Parwez who held the post for close to two-and-a-half years apart from the portfolio of the principal secretary (rural development and panchayat raj) department.

Maheshwar Rao's appointment as the Managing Director was made after receiving approval from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which holds a 50 per cent equity stake in BMRCL.

The ministry, in granting approval for the new MD, emphasised that any additional responsibilities from the government should only be assigned with its prior consent.

It may be recalled that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs in its report in March 2023 had said that the metro rail projects running without any full time or dedicated managing director were very tardy.

As such, the committee recommended that the ministry should stress upon the need of appointing a full-time MD in all the metro corporations or projects and take up the matter with various state governments at the earliest.

After Anjum Parwez was given additional charge as the MD of BMRCL, concerns surfaced across various quarters, expressing the necessity for a full-time MD to oversee the crucial Namma Metro project and expedite its progress.

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya persistently championed the cause. Just last week, he met with Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, urgently seeking his intervention with the state government to appoint a full-time Managing Director for BMRCL.

Posting about his meeting with Puri on social media platform X, Surya said: “Bengaluru Metro needs a full-time MD to lead its operations. Without a full-time leader, most of the critical work, including the Yellow Line, is getting delayed.”