BIOGRAPHY OF E. SREEDHARAN

E. SREEDHARAN - THE METRO MAN

E. Sreedharan is an Indian engineer known as the “Metro Man” for his pivotal role in building the Konkan Railway and Delhi metro. He was born in Palakkad district of Kerala on 12 June 1932. His family hailed from Karukaputhoor.He received his early education from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School after which he went to the Victoria College in Palghat. He chose to study engineering and completed his Civil Engineering from the Government college, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

After completing his education he was appointed as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode. He worked there only for a short while before joining the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice. In 1953, he appeared for the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and cleared it. He joined the Indian Engineering Service (IES) and was posted as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in the Southern Railway in December 1954. He faced the first big challenge of his career in December 1964 when a cyclone damaged the Pamban Bridge in Tamil Nadu. The Railways allotted a period of six months for the repair works while Sreedharan’s boss wanted the work done within three. Sreedharan, who was made in-charge of the restoration, executed the work in just 46 days.

In 1970, Sreedharan was assigned the responsibility of implementing, planning and designing the Kolkata metro, the first ever metro in India. He was deputy chief engineer at that time. With his hard work and determination he led the successful completion of the job and set the pace for the further development in infrastructure engineering in India. He was associated with the project till 1975.In October 1979 he joined the Cochin Shipyard Limited, the largest shipbuilding and maintenance facility in India. But at the time of his joining, the agency was not performing well. However, under Sreedharan’s direction, the agency flourished and launched its first ship MV Rani Padmini in 1981.

He became the general manager, Western Railway in July 1987. A couple of year later he was elevated to the post of Member Engineering, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India. He retired in June 1990 but the government informed him that his services would still be needed and thus he was appointed the CMD of Konkan Railway on contract. The Konkan Railway project, which had 93 tunnels with a total tunnel length of 82 km and involved tunneling through soft soil, was very different from the typical Indian railway projects. The total project covered 760 km and had over 150 bridges. Under his leadership, the work was completed in seven years.He was later made the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC). Again he proved to be an extraordinary leader and all the scheduled sections were completed within their respective budgets, and by their target time.

The phenomenal success of the Delhi Metro made him a national celebrity and the government honored him with many awards for his relentless hard work and dedication. He retired from service in December 2011.The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in 2001.The Government of France bestowed upon him The Order of Légion d'Honneur, the highest decoration in France, in 2005.In 2008 he received the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in recognition of his work with the Delhi Metro. He is married to Radha and regards his wife as a great pillar of support. The couple has four children, all of them are now well accomplished in their own chosen fields.