Manjula N to head K-RIDE until a regular MD is appointed

Bengaluru: Manjula N, a 2002-batch IAS officer who is Secretary of the Kannada and Culture Department, has been asked to be managing director of Railway Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka), or K-RIDE, which is implementing the 149-km Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP). 

The order comes into immediate effect and will remain in force until a regular managing director is appointed to K-RIDE, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) stated in a notification on Tuesday. 

Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary of the Energy Department, has been relieved from concurrent charge as the K-RIDE managing director. 

In 2019, Manjula became the first woman IAS officer in 20 years to be appointed commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

The BSRP will have four corridors running along the city's railway network. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone in June 2022 with a 40-month deadline. However, the project has run into delays because of poor coordination between the railways and the K-RIDE. 

Groundwork has begun only on one of the four corridors, and the deadline has been pushed to 2028. 

Earlier this year, K-RIDE placed an advertisement seeking applications to appoint a full-time managing director. However, the railways later asked it to rescind the advertisement. Well-placed sources say the railways wants a technocrat to help the position.