E. Sreedharan: India’s Pride

E. Sreedharan is a man known for honesty, integrity, fearlessness, getting things done fast. E. Sreedharan is now known for honesty and hard work all over India. I think he drew more media attention after he completed the first phase of Delhi metro, without any delay. He became known for his discipline during the construction of Delhi metro. He was very strict with contractors. He would not allow anything that would damage the quality of construction. Because of efficiency in completing Delhi metro project he is called metro man by the media.

Sreedharan should be given credit to the timely completion of Delhi metro projects. It should be seen that India’s first metro project, the Kolkata project was delayed over decades and its budget went over the limit, due to lack of professionalism, political meddling, and red tappism. This was avoided, in Delhi metro, because DMRC was given full control of the project. The government should be thanked for this approach. You can see that DMRC is the most efficient government body in India, which the Delhi people are very proud of. It is seen that people are accepting the DMRC’s professional approach. I pray to god, same thing is kept even after Sreedharan has retired from DMRC.

Dr. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan was born on 11 July 1932 in Palakkad district of Kerala. After completing graduation from Government Engineering College, Kakinada he joined as a lecturer in Civil Engineering in Government Polytechnic West hill, Kozhikode. Then he went to Bombay port trust as an apprentice. Later he joined Indian Railway as Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954.

His first major achievement was the timely completion of parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameshwaram to main land Tamilnadu, that was washed away by a tidal wave. He completed this in 46 days, while target given to him was 3 months by his boss. Railway minister's Award was given to him in recognition of this achievement.

He was involved in the construction of Kolkata metro rail. His another major project was the konkan railway. This was a project with great hurdles in front of it. But Sreedharan was successful in completing it in time. It was the first major project in India to be undertaken on a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) basis; the organisation structure was different from that of a typical Indian Railway set-up; the project had 93 tunnels along a length of 82 km and involved tunneling through soft soil. The total project covered 760 km and had over 150 bridges. If it was not done under the supervision of Sreedharan then I bet it would have been delayed for years.

Well I think it is very difficult for a man like Sreedharan to work in an environment like corruption, nepotism, unjust political interference, with such efficiency. Sreedharan has told in an interview that he faced immense pressures from politicians, to do things like- awarding contracts to persons of their choice, giving promotions to persons of their choice, avoiding certain areas from the project area. But, he was a bold person, and he never succumbed to their pressures. The politicians now know that E. Sreedharan cannot be manouevered easily as they think.

His honesty and hard work has brought him many awards and invitation to many major projects around the world. He was invited to Pakistan for the development of Lahore metro project. He was also invited by UAE government for the Dubai metro project. But he had to deny these proposals because of commitment with DMRC. I think he is great patriot for doing this.

The recent accidents at the construction site of DMRC has caused a black mark on his big carrier. But his achievements are more than those small bad marks .

I think we need more people like Sreedharan in India. Then only we can stride forward to become a strong country.

Some of the achievements of E. Sreedharan:

• Railway Minister's Award (1963)
• Padma Shri by the Government of India (2001)
• Man of the Year by The Times of India (2002)
• Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award for professional excellence in engineering (2002)
• CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Juror's Award for leadership in infrastructure development (2002-03)
• One of Asia's Heroes by TIME (2003)
• AIMA (All India Management Association) award for Public Service Excellence (2003)
• Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) from IIT Delhi.
• Bharat Shiromani award from the Shiromani Institute, Chandigarh (2005)
• Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the government of France (2005)
• CNN-IBN Indian Of the Year 2007: Public Service (2008)
• Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India (2008)

To know more about Sreedharan visit these links:

• Wikipedia
• blog on metro
• Interview with sreedharan
• His work on Konkan railway