Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is a retired Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer popularly known as “Metro Man”. The civil engineer has led infrastructure projects for more than five decades. He is largely recognized for changing the face of public transport in India by his administration in construction projects like Konkan Railway, Delhi Metro, Kochi Metro and many other major infrastructure projects. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.
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Wiki/Biography
E. Sreedharan was born on Sunday, 12 June 1932 (age 88 years; as in 2021) in Ponnani, Madras Presidency, British India, (now Palakkad district in Kerala). His zodiac sign is Gemini. Sreedharan completed his schooling from the Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School in Palakkad and later went to Victoria College, Palghat. He received a degree in civil engineering from the Government Engineering College in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. After completing his engineering studies, the metro man started his career as a lecturer in civil engineering at Kerala Polytechnic College, Kozhikode. There he used to teach civil engineering subjects. In 1953, he passed the Indian Engineering Service (IES) examination and in December 1954, he was appointed as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in the Southern Railway. Subsequently, he moved to the Bombay Port Trust as a trainee, before joining the Indian Railways’ Service of Engineers in 1954.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 10″
Eye colour: brown
Hair Color: Black
family and caste
Sreedharan was born in a Hindu family to Neelakandan Moosath (father) and Ammaluamma (mother).
Sreedharan’s wife is Radha Sreedharan.
E Sreedharan with his wife at his residence in Ponnani, Kerala
The couple have four children: eldest son Ramesh is one of the vice presidents at Tata Consultancy Services; Daughter Shanti Menon runs a school in Bangalore, the other son, Achyuth Menon, is a doctor in the UK. His youngest son is M. Krishnadas, who works at ABB India Limited.
livelihood
in civil engineering
He was recruited as an Assistant Engineer in the Indian Railway Engineering Service (IRES) by passing the UPSC examination in 1954. In 1990, after serving the organization for 30 years, he retired as Member (Engineering), Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India. However, the government granted him extension and appointed him as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Konkan Railway on contract. He spent seven years there, after which in 1997 he was made the Managing Director of DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation). In December 2011, at the age of sixty-nine, he retired from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). Two phases of Delhi Metro are being completed. By then, he had devoted fifty-seven years to public service and all he wanted was a quiet life in solitude. However, the government still wanted him and his tenure was later extended. He was given the responsibility of overseeing the Kochi Metro (built in four years), the monorail in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, the construction of the South-West Speed-Rail track and several other metro projects. He faced these new challenges at the age of eighty-one with the same determination that he had displayed six decades earlier when he joined the Indian Railways and resumed his working life of non-stop travel.
Some of the major contributions of E Sreedharan in the infrastructure development of India:
Rameshwaram Pamban Bridge: A unique aspect of Indian bureaucrats is that most of them fail to complete the work within the stipulated time frame and money. However, this is not the case with the projects headed by Sreedharan. He first came to the world’s attention in 1964 when he rebuilt the Pamban Bridge, which was destroyed due to a cyclone. However, he was given six months to complete the challenging task; He repaired the bridge and brought it to working condition in just 46 days. He was given a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. Rs 1000 by the then Railway Ministry of India.
Rameshwaram Pamban Bridge
Kolkata Metro Project: In 1970, he was put in charge of designing and planning India’s first metro project – the Kolkata Metro. He entered into the project with minimal knowledge and understanding of the metro rail system. He spent four days studying models of Tokyo subway lines; This resulted in 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 ship, MV Rani Padmini, which was launched the following year. 1981.
Rani Padmani, cargo ship weighing 75000 tons
Konkan Railway Project: Next was the Konkan Railway Project, which is an epic in the history of Indian Railways. Many problems arose for the engineers working in the construction of Konkan Railway. The rocky Sahyadri range had to be crossed, bridges had to be built through valleys, and more than 1,500 rivers had to be forded. The total project covered 760 km of track and had approximately 2000 bridges and 93 tunnels. This track will start from Mangalore in the south and run between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats to Roha town in Maharashtra. This mammoth project, which had been dismissed as an impossible task since the British era, took only seven years and three months to complete under Sreedharan’s leadership. This was perhaps an incredible pace of construction in a country where it takes years to build a flyover.
Delhi Metro Project: The most modern metro line in India, Delhi Metro, is one of his greatest achievements. Sreedharan was given the title of ‘Metro Man’ by the media for his brilliant achievement. He oversaw Phase One (65.11 km) and Phase Two (124.9 km) of the Delhi Metro as Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation from 1997 to 2011. Here are two interviews from different times in which Sreedharan talks about the making of 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 held in Changaramkulam. After joining the party, the veteran civil engineer said it was “one of the greatest moments of his life.”
After formally joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, Metro man E. Sreedharan and Kerala BJP chief K. Surendran was garlanded.
On 4 March 2021, the BJP nominated Sreedharan as the Chief Ministerial candidate of Kerala. He contested the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election from Palakkad assembly constituency and lost to incumbent Shafi Parambil of the Indian National Congress. On 7 October 2021, BJP elected him a member of the BJP National Executive Council. On 16 December 2011, while addressing the media at his residence in Ponnani, Sreedharan expressed his disillusionment with the BJP. He said,
BJP cannot make any progress in Kerala without changing itself.
He added,
I came into politics not as an active politician but as a bureaucrat. I entered politics in old age. I could have served the country in many ways earlier also.”
Books on Biography of E Sreedharan
A lot of articles and stories can be found on the internet that summarize his brilliant career. But there are two books that tell his biography in detail and they contain rare information not only about his career but also about the personal life of the Metro Man.
- India’s Railway Man: A Biography of E. Sreedharan, Rajendra B. Written by Aklekar.
- Karmayogi: Biography of E. Sridharan, written by MS Ashokan.
E Sreedharan’s books
- Restoration of Values: The Key to Integrity, Ethical Behavior and Good Governance (2004)
- A Textbook of Historiography, 500 BC to 2000 AD (2010)
Awards and Honors
- Railway Minister Award (1963)
- Padma Shri (2001) by the Government of India
- Man of the Year (2002) by Times of India
- 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)
- Honorary degree of Doctor of Science from IIT Delhi.
- Dr. Yelavarti Nayudamma Memorial Award
- Bharat Shiromani Award from Shiromani Institute, Chandigarh (2005)
- Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) by the Government of France (2005)
- Kimpro Platinum Standard (Business) National Statesman for Quality in India (2007)
- CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007: Public Service (2008)
- Padma Vibhushan (2008) by the Government of India
- D.Litt. In 2009 by Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan
- Doctor of Philosophy (Honorary Degree) from IIT Roorkee, 2009.
- Newsmaker of the Year by Manorama News in 2012.
- Sree Chithira Thirunal National Award, 2012
- Honorary SR Jindal Award presented by the Sitaram Jindal Foundation in 2012.
- TKM 60 Plus Award for Lifetime Achievement by TKM College of Engineering, 2013.
- Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) awarded by Mahamaya Technical University at its first convocation (2013)
- Rotary International Sake of Honor Award (2013)
- Lifetime Achievement Governance Award by Griffels (2013)
- KPP Nambiar Award by IEEE Kerala Section (2017)
- Lifetime Achievement Award at Republic-Open Magazine’s Achievers Awards (2019)
Facts/General Knowledge
- One of the hallmarks of Sreedharan’s projects is that none of them were suspected of corruption.
- Because of his experience and skill set, he could have been successful anywhere. E Sreedharan could easily have got 50 times more salary than what he got from the government when he headed the Delhi Metro project.
- His determination and devotion towards his work can be portrayed through many real life situations and the decisions he takes. For example, consider the national railway strike of 1974: a 20-day strike by 1.7 million workers, perhaps the largest railway strike ever in India. But even at that time, Sreedharan was busy designing the metro rail network in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and hence he refused to stop his work.
- In 2015, Metro Man Sreedharan was appointed by former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve on the United Nations High-level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST) for a three-year period from 2015 to 2018. ,
- In 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Governor’s Administration appointed E Sreedharan as the principal consultant for the construction of two Mass Rapid Transit systems to be built in Jammu and Srinagar.
- A biopic film “Ram Sethu” based on Sreedharan’s life is under production and is scheduled to release soon. The film is directed by VK Prakash and scripted by S Suresh Babu.
- He follows a vegetarian diet and strongly opposes the consumption of meat.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn