Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is a retired Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer known as the ‘Metro Man’. The civil engineer has been leading infrastructure projects for over five decades. He is largely credited with changing the face of public transport in India through his administration in the construction of projects such as Konkan Railway, Delhi Metro, Kochi Metro and several other major infrastructure projects. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2001 and Padma Vibhushan in 2008.
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Wiki/Biography
E. Sreedharan was born on Sunday 12 June 1932 (age 88; as of 2021) in Ponani Madras Presidency, British India, (now Palakkad District in Kerala). His zodiac sign is Gemini. Sreedharan completed his schooling from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School in Palakkad and then went to Victoria College in Palghat. He received his degree in Civil Engineering from Government Engineering College, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. After completing his engineering studies, Metro Man started his career as a lecturer in civil engineering at Kerala Polytechnic College, Kozhikode. There he taught civil engineering subjects. In 1953, he passed the Indian Engineering Service (IES) examination, and in December 1954, he was appointed as an Assistant Engineer Examiner in the Southern Railway. He then moved to the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice before joining the Indian Railways as an engineer in 1954.
Physical appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 10″
Eye color: brown
Hair color: black
family and caste
Sreedharan was born in a Hindu family, Neelakandan Moosath (father) and Ammaluamma (mother).
Sreedharan’s wife is Radha Sreedharan.
E Sreedharan with his wife at his residence in Ponnani, Kerela
The couple has four children: the eldest son Ramesh is one of the vice-presidents of Tata Consultancy Services; Daughter Shanti Menon runs a school in Bangalore, second son Achiut Menon is a doctor in UK. Their youngest son is M. Krishnadas who works at ABB INDIA LTD.
Career
in civil engineering
He was appointed as an Assistant Engineer in the Indian Railway Engineering Service (IRES) in 1954 by passing the UPSC examination. In 1990, he retired as Member (Engineering), Member, Railway Board and former Secretary, Government of India, after 30 years of service to the organization. However, the government gave him tenure and appointed him as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Konkan Railway on contract basis. He spent seven years there, after which he was appointed Managing Director of DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) in 1997. In December 2011, at the age of seventy-nine, he retired from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) after completing two phases of the Delhi Metro. Before that, he had already devoted forty-seven years to public service and wanted only a quiet life in solitude. However, the government still wanted him, and later his authority was further extended. He was given responsibility for the Kochi Metro (built in four years), the monorail in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, the construction of the South West High Speed Rail and several other metro projects. He accepted these new challenges at the age of eighty-one with the same resolve he had displayed six decades ago when he joined the Indian Railways and resumed his life of continuous traveling work.
Some of the key contributions of E Sreedharan in infrastructure development in India:
Rameshwaram Pamban Bridge: A unique aspect of Indian bureaucrats is that most of them are unable to complete the work within the specified time and funds. However, the same has not happened with Sreedharan-helmed projects. He first came to the world’s attention in 1964 after he rebuilt the Pamban Bridge which had been destroyed by a cyclone. However, he was given six months to complete the difficult task; He repaired the bridge in working conditions in just 46 days. He was given a cash reward of 500 GEL. 1,000 by the then Ministry of Railways of India.
Rameshwaram Pamban Bridge
Kolkata Metro Project: In 1970, he was commissioned to design and plan India’s first metro project, the Kolkata Metro Project. He participated in the project with minimal knowledge and understanding of the metro rail system. He spent four days studying a model of the Tokyo subway lines; The result was a world-class metro rail system in Kolkata. He led the project for five years until 1975.
Cochin Shipyard Limited: He had a brief stint as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Cochin Shipyard from October 1979 to November 1980. Under his leadership, the shipyard commissioned its first vessel, MV Rani Padmini, which was launched the following year in 1981.
Rani Padmani, a bulk carrier of 75,000 tons
Konkan Railway Project: Next was the Konkan Railway Project, an epic in Indian railway history. The construction of the Konkan Railway presented a number of difficulties to the engineers entrusted with the work. The rocky Sahyadri ridge had to be crossed, bridges had to be built across the valleys and more than 1,500 rivers had to be crossed. The entire project included 760 km of track and about 2,000 bridges with 93 tunnels. Starting from Mangalore in the south to Roh in Maharashtra, the trail ran between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats. The monumental project, written off as an impossible task since the time of the British, took just seven years and three months under Sreedharan’s leadership. In a country where it takes years to build a planet, this was probably incredible speed.
Delhi Metro Project: India’s most modern metro line, the Delhi Metro is one of its greatest achievements. Sriharan has been hailed as ‘Metro Man’ by the media for his monumental achievements. He oversaw the Delhi Metro Phase I (65.11 km) and Phase II (124.9 km) as Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation from 1997 to 2011. Here are two interviews from different times where Sriharan explains the construction of the Delhi Metro.
in politics
On 25 February 2021, at the age of 88, E Sreedharan made his political debut by officially joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He joined the party during the BJP’s ‘Vijay Yatra’ meeting organized in Changaramkulam. After being on the sidelines of the party, the veteran civil engineer said “this is one of the greatest moments of his life”.
Metro Man E. Sreedharan, Kerala BJP chief K. With Surendran, it turns out after he formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party
On 4 March 2021, the BJP nominated Sreedharan as its candidate for Chief Minister of Kerala. He contested the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections from Palakkad Assembly constituency and lost to Indian National Congress incumbent Shafi Parambil. On 7 October 2021, the BJP elected him as a member of the BJP National Executive Council. On 16 December 2011, while addressing the media at Ponani’s residence, Sriharan expressed his disappointment with the BJP. She said,
BJP cannot make any progress in Kerala without changing itself. “
He added,
I entered politics not as an active politician, but as a bureaucrat. I entered politics in my old age. I could serve the country in many ways before.”
Books on E Shreedharan Biography
Numerous articles and stories can be found online summarizing his distinguished career. But there are two books detailing his biography and containing rare information not only about his career but also about the Metro Man’s personal life.
- An Indian Railway Man: A Biography of E. Sreedharan written by Rajendra B. Aklekar.
- Karmayog: A Biography of E. Sreedharan written by MS Ashokan.
Books by E Sreedharan
- Restoring Values: The Key to Integrity, Ethical Behavior, and Good Governance (2004)
- Handbook of historiography, BC. From 500 to 2000 (2010)
Awards and honors
- Railway Minister Award (1963)
- Padma Shri by Government of India (2001)
- The Times of India Man of the Year (2002)
- Om Prakash Bhasin Award for Professional Excellence in Engineering (2002)
- CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Jury Award for Leadership in Infrastructure Development (2002–03)
- One of Asia’s heroes TIME (2003)
- AIMA (All India Management Association) Award for Excellence in Public Service (2003)
- Honorary Doctor of Science degree from IIT Delhi.
- Dr. Elavarthy Nayudama Memorial Award
- Bharat Shiroman Award from Shiroman Institute, Chandigarh (2005)
- Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) by the French Government (2005)
- Qimpro Platinum Standard (Business) Quality National Statesman in India (2007)
- CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007: Public Service (2008)
- Padma Vibhushan by Government of India (2008)
- D. Lit. by Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan, in 2009
- Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris causa) from IIT Roorkee, 2009.
- Newsmaker of the Year by Manorama News in 2012.
- Sree Chithira Thirunal National Award, 2012
- SR Jindal Honorary Prize awarded by Sitaram Jindal Foundation, 2012.
- TKM 60 Plus Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013 by TKM College of Engineering.
- Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) at the first convocation of Mahamaya Technical University (2013)
- Rotary International Honorary Award (2013)
- Griffels Lifetime Achievement Management Award (2013)
- KPP Nambiar Award by IEEE Kerala Section (2017)
- Lifetime Achievement Award at Republic-Open Magazine’s Achievers Awards (2019)
Facts/Trivia
- One of the hallmarks of Sreedharan’s projects is that none of them has been plagued by suspicion of corruption.
- Thanks to his experience and skills, he could be successful anywhere. E Sreedharan could easily earn 50 times the salary he was getting from the government while heading the Delhi Metro project.
- His determination and dedication to his work can be illustrated by the multitude of real-life situations and decisions he has made. Consider, for example, the national railway strike of 1974: a 20-day strike by 1.7 million workers, perhaps the largest strike in India to date. But also at that time Sreedharan was busy designing the metro rail network in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and therefore refused to stop his work.
- In 2015, Metropolitan, Sriharan was also appointed by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve on the UN High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST) for three years from 2015 to 2018.
- In 2019, the administration of the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir appointed E Sreedharan as the chief advisor for the construction of two mass rapid transit systems to be built in Jammu and Srinagar.
- A biopic ‘Rama Sethu’ based on Sreedharan’s life is in the works and will be released in the near future. The film is directed by VK Prakash and written by S Suresh Babu.
- He adheres to a vegetarian diet and is categorically against the consumption of meat.
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Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
