Darshpreet Bhatti, CEO of Calgary’s former Green Line transit project, has decided to move on, saying that now’s the right time.
Bhatti, who was first hired to oversee the Calgary transit megaproject back in August 2021, made the announcement during a Green Line wind-down update to Calgary city council on Oct. 29.
After delivering the latest Green Line wind-down report, Bhatti told councillors that he would be transitioning out of his role as the project’s CEO. Councillors were also informed of the plans to eliminate the Green Line Board in its entirety and to transition to an in-house department for the project.
“I wanted to really express my gratitude to each one of you, to the board, to the phenomenal team that worked with me over the last three years, and most importantly, Calgarians,” Bhatti said.
“I would say serving this community over the last three years and meeting thousands of Calgarians from all walks of life, I would say it’s probably the most rewarding experience of this job that I’ve had.”
Operation of the board was whittled down shortly after the province pulled funding for the previous Green Line alignment. Since then, the province and the City of Calgary, along with the province’s consultant AECOM have been a part of a working group to salvage parts of the $6.25 billion project.
Outside of council chambers on Tuesday, Bhatti reflected on his three years in Calgary, saying that his decision was a culmination of different elements coming together. He said it was an appropriate time given the transition of the board, the changes to the project and that there are capable people to move the transit project forward.
“I don’t think there was one particular reason that caused me,” he said.
“It was just a collective thought of my family and myself to decide that this is perhaps the right time to transition out of this particular role.”
Mixed feelings over a Green Line project left ‘incomplete’
Bhatti said that he was brought here to deliver the construction side of the once-approved Green Line project. He said he’s proud of what they’d done up to this point and met all of the objectives laid out for them.
The project had been reshaped over the years, largely due to the confluence of inflation, labour costs, time and the increase in the number of transit projects coming up post-COVID-19. Bhatti said he understood the politics of it all, and recognized that some of these things were out of his control.
“It does feel incomplete,” he said.
“So, I’ll be very honest, in that sense, that every project I’ve been on, it goes through its own motions, but eventually they are completed. This program will be completed, too. I just may not be there for the entire journey.”
Bhatti is optimistic that there’s a reasonable solution for the transit link to the southeast.
“I always think there’s always a good path,” he said.
“If this much effort has been put behind it over the last 9, 10 years, it can’t just abruptly come to this conclusion. So, I’m hopeful that something will continue.”
Before Bhatti left chambers Tuesday, several councillors offered their gratitude to the soon-to-be former Green Line CEO, for his work on the project.
“I just want to say publicly, I too stand behind you your team and all the hard work, and thank you for the great lengths that you went to explain the project to this horseshoe and to help us understand the difficult decisions and the market factors and all the rest that this project was faced with,” said Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer.
Bhatti said that he’s not sure where he’ll land from here, but there are transit projects being built all over the world. For the time being, he said he and his family would stay in Calgary.
