E. Sreedharan

The metro man of India, Sreedharan was born on 12th July 1932 in Palakkad district of Kerala. He studied at the Victoria College in Palghat and gained his graduation in engineering from the former ‘Government Engineering College’, Kakinada. He started his career as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Kerala Polytechnic in Kozhikode. Then he moved to the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice and joined in Indian Railways as a service engineer. He restored the Pamban bridge connecting Rameshwaram with Tamil Nadu in a record time of 46 days, when a tidal wave washed away portions of this bridge. He was awarded the Railway Minister’s Award for this achievement. After that, he served as the deputy chief engineer in charge of the implementation, planning and design of ‘Calcutta Metro’, the first metro in India in 1970. He also served as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Cochin Shipyard. Though he retired from Indian Railways in 1990, the Government called him out of retirement and he was appointed as the CMD of Konkan Railway on contract in 1990. This highly challenging project was completed in a period of seven years under his leadership. This project covering a total of around 760 kms has 93 tunnels and over 150 bridges and it reduced the Mumbai-Kochi distance by one-third. In the mid of 2005, he was appointed as the Managing Director of Delhi Metro and most of the scheduled sections of this project have been completed well-ahead of schedule. Though he announced that he would retire by the end of 2005, but his service has been extended by another three years to oversee the completion of the second phase of Delhi Metro. But now he resigned this post by taking moral responsibility for a Metro bridge collapse in Delhi which cause six people’s death. But Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has rejected to accept his resignation. Knowing his managerial power, he was called in Pakistan for development of the Lahore Metro plan and by the UAE govt to head the Dubai Metro Project. But he was rejected these offers. He is a simple and disciplined man who is famous for achieving the ‘almost impossible’ in a government-administered system.

Sreedharan has received many awards and honors in his life. Indian Government honored him by giving the “Padma Shri” and “Padma Vibhushan” award. Also he was awarded the ‘Man of the Year’ by The Times of India in 2002 and was named as one of Asia’s Heroes by TIME in 2003. Besides, he was awarded the ‘Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur’ (Knight of the Legion of Honor) by the government of France in 2005 for his outstanding commitment to the development of transportation infrastructure in India and his valuable contribution to enhancing Indo-French relations. ‘Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award’ for professional excellence in engineering in 2002, ‘Railway Minister’s Award’ in 1963, ‘Bharat Shiromani award’ from the Shiromani Institute, Chandigarh in 2005, Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) from IIT Delhi etc.

Metro Man E. Sreedharan withdrew his resignation letter as managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Monday by the request of Delhi Chief minister Sheila Dikshit and other senior officials. E.Sreedharan is an Indian civil engineer who is famous for completing the construction of ‘Konkan Railway’ that reduced the Mumbai-Kochi distance by one-third. Now he is the managing director of ‘Delhi Metro’project. He was resigned this post on 12th July 2009 by taking moral responsibility for a Metro bridge collapse in Delhi which cause six people’s death. But Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has rejected to accept his resignation.