E. Sreedharan

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E. Sreedharan ( Elattuvalappil Sreedharan ; Malayalam : ഇ. ശ്രീധരൻ ; born July 12, 1932 in Karukaputhur , Kerala ) is an Indian engineer.

Sreedharan became famous for the completion of the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro Project. In both cases, the projects stayed within budget and were completed faster than planned.

Early years

E. Sreedharan comes from the village Karukaputhur in the district of Palakkad in Kerala . The surname Elattuvalappil attests to his belonging to the Tharavad of this area of ​​Kerala, a kind of landed gentry. He was a classmate of TN Seshan , the former Chief Election Commissioner of India. He later studied at Victoria College in Palakkad and graduated as an engineer from Government Engineering College, Kakinada (now: Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, JNTU). After a brief period as a lecturer in civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode and a year as a trainee at the “Bombay Port Trust” , he began his work as an engineer at Indian Railways following a national selection process . He took over his first duties at the Southern Railway as "assistant engineer on probation" in December 1954.

Civil service

In 1964, a cyclone washed away parts of the Pamban Bridge , which connects Rameswaram on Pamban Island with mainland Tamil Nadu . The railroad set the goal of restarting operations within six months, which Sreedharan's manager shortened to three months. The project was entrusted to Sreedharan, who restored the bridge within 46 days for which he received the Railway Minister's Award . In 1970 he was appointed deputy chief engineer responsible for the planning, design and implementation of the Kolkata Metro , the first rapid-transit railway project in India. During his time as "Chairman and Managing Director" (CMD) of the shipyard in Kochi , their first ship, the "Rani Padmini", was launched. In 1990 he retired from his post as an engineer with Indian Railways.

Work as a freelance consultant

A Delhi Metro train in a station.

Although retired, he was won by the government in 1990 as CMD of the Konkan Railway. The company was under his leadership for seven years. The new railway line to be built was new territory in many ways. It was the first major project in India that was carried out on the basis of a "Build - Operate - Transfer" (BOT) procedure. The organizational structure differed significantly from other Indian railways. 93 tunnels had to be built over a distance of 82 km, some of them through soft ground. The overall project comprised 760 km of track and 150 bridges. The fact that a public building project could be realized without major cost overruns and time delays was judged by many to be a great achievement.

He then became Managing Director of the Delhi Metro , where he was instrumental in ensuring that all planned sections could be opened on or even before the planned date by 2005 and that the planned budget was not exceeded. For this he was given the nickname "Metro Man" in the media . In 2005 he was awarded the title Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government . Although he had announced that he would retire at the end of 2005, his job was extended by another three years to oversee the second phase of the Delhi Metro expansion. He turned down a request from the United Arab Emirates in 2005 to manage the construction of the Dubai metro with reference to his duties in Delhi. He was recently asked by the Pakistani government to oversee construction of the Lahore metro .

honors and awards

  • Railway Minister's Award (1963)
  • Padma Shri by the Government of India (2001)
  • Man of the Year of The Times of India (2002)
  • Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award for Outstanding Professional Engineering Work (2002)
  • CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Juror's Award for leading infrastructure development (2002–2003)
  • One of Asia's Heroes by TIME (2003)
  • AIMA (All India Management Association) award for excellence in the public sector (2003)
  • Dr. rer. nat. hc through the IIT Delhi .
  • Bharat Shiromani award by the Shiromani Institute, Chandigarh (2005)
  • Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government (2005)
  • CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007: Public Service (2008)
  • Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India (2008)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sreedharan is CNN-IBN IOTY - Public Service In: ibnlive.in.com, accessed on March 28, 2009
  2. ↑ a b “French award presented to Sreedharan”, (The Hindu, November 23, 2005) (English)
  3. ↑ Overview of the honored ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iitd.ac.in
  4. ^ Sreedharan is Indian Of the Year: Public Service . CNN-IBN . January 25, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2008.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sreedharan, E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Karukaputhur , Kerala