Will he? Won't he

Rahul Asthana, the newly appointed Metropolitan Commissioner of the MMRDA, has a tough road ahead of him as the organisation currently is swarmed with troubles. Firstly, the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan is proving to be a great setback as Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is likely to shrink the size of its funds directed towards organisation of its third metro line in Mumbai. Secondly, the organisation has become a victim of heavy poaching by the private sector, which is luring its employees with financial lollipops; especially the Transport and Communication (T&C) division that is responsible for planning key projects such as the metro and monorail. In the past six months, the size of the transport and communication division has reduced considerably. Thirdly, the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (11.07 km) corridor of the Mumbai Metro rail network project is mired in controversy with the transport division terming it as unnecessarily extravagant. Whether Asthana will be able to cross these hurdles and restore the former glory of the MMRDA remains to be seen.