Elias George, Additional Chief Secretary, Power and Transport, has taken charge as the new managing director of Kochi Metro Rail Limited.

After assuming charge yesterday, he met the staff and officials of KMRL and Land acquisition department of Kochi Metro and gave instructions to expedite procedures, a press release here said.

Elias George is a senior IAS officer (1982 batch) with vast experience across different sectors of administration. He started his career as Assistant Collector at Thalassery and worked in different departments like Irrigation, Forest, Civil Supplies, Labour, Industries and Tourism.

He has held positions in several departments in the State as well as in central ministries and has served on the boards of central government PSUs like SAIL, RINL and MSTC.

The new Managing Director met the DMRC principal adviser E Sreedharan, and had a detailed discussion regarding the key issues relating to the early implementation of the project.

He expressed confidence about getting KMRL and DMRC to work together with the common objective of setting up a world-class metro system in Kochi.