E Sreedharan – The Metroman

Abstract

In a day and age when all that we read about are delayed infrastructure projects and spiralling costs, it is refreshing to study a man who is known for his project implementation skills in the public infrastructure space. The personality traits of the ‘Metroman’ — Mr Sreedharan is widely known — from various perspectives: a reputation built on his honesty, integrity and his project implementation skills.

Introduction

E Sreedharan, an engineer by profession, was born in 1932 in Karukaputhur, Kerala. He pursued his higher education at the Victoria College in Palghat. Afterwards, Sreedharan completed a degree in civil engineering from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

His career started out as a lecturer of civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode. He then joined the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice. He began his career as a civil engineering lecturer at a government college. After a short stint there, he joined the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) in 1953.

The Pamban Bridge

Sreedharan moved up the ladder in the Railways due to his ingenious ways of tackling problems and was duly recognised for it. Some of it was outright innovative such as rebuilding of the Pamban bridge, a 2.3 km rail bridge across the sea between Pamban and Rameshwaram, in just about one and half months! The bridge had been washed away in a cyclone in 1964. For accomplishing this project, steel girders had to be brought into the site from all over India and tracks to be built over it. The logistics involved in getting the girders themselves was what made calculation of the project timeline as 6 six months.

The Konkan Railways

Sreedharan was promoted as general manager, Western Railway, in July 1987. Though he retired in June 1990, the government still needed his services and the then railway minister, George Fernandes, appointed him as the CMD of Konkan Railway, on contract. his was the second big challenge in Sreedharan’s professional life.

The Konkan railways is a 760 km long broad gage line connecting Mumbai to Mangalore. The railway line passes through some of the most difficult terrains encountered in the country. For constructing this line 93 tunnels of 83.5 Km had to be bored through, the longest being 6.5 km in length. There 157 major bridged, the longest being 2 km in length. There were about 6000 minor bridges. Another challenge was acquiring lang from 40000 land owners. The over all budget available for construction of new railway lines was Rs 300-400 Cr for the whole year and this had to be shared between 20 new railways lines under construction.

The cost of the Konkan Railways was Rs 2400 Cr. So Konkan Railways would have taken decades to complete if completed through own railways funds. Following this a very innovative financial engineering scheme was undertaken and funds were raised with the help of state governments (who benefited from the Konkan Railways – Maharashtra, Goa, Maharashtra and Kerela). Though the line did not pass through Kerela, the State Government was compelled to participate as the distance from Mumbai to Kochi got reduced by 600 km.

The Konkan railway track was designed to run trains at 150 km/h as compared to other tracks in the country which permit upto 120 km/h. The project was completed within a record time of 7 years.

The Kolkata Metro

Following this he was made in charge of planning and designing the Kolkata metro, the first-ever metro in India. The project started in 1960s and ended in 1994, he planned, designed, and implemented the Kolkata Metro project. The initial line of 11 km line took 22 years and was over budged by 15 times. This was one of the most technologically advanced projects undertaken in India at that time.

The Delhi Metro project

Despite the problems faced in the Kolkata metro project, in 1996, the Delhi metro project was sanctioned by the Government of India. Judging by the speed with which the Kolkata metro was executed by Indian Railways, it was decided to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to implement the Delhi Metro. Delhi Metro rail corporation was setup with 50% participation from GoI and Delhi Government. The Japanese Govt had promised to give 60% of the project cost. In a span of 18 years, under his leadership, Delhi Metro changed the face of public transport in Delhi and NCR region. It completed sections regularly before target and is one of the handful of Metro projects in the world that have run in profits and have been able to shift massive public from road to Metro.

The first phase of the project was completed 2 years and 9 months ahead of schedule. Phase 1 of the project was completed well within the budget of Rs 10500 Cr. Today, the Delhi Metro has the largest network, 389 kilometres and 285 stations.

Other Projects

Between 1979 and 1981, he oversaw the Cochin Shipyard Limited and was instrumental in its turnaround.

He retired from government service in 1990 at the position of Member Engineering, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India. However, the government kept him on a contract as it felt it needed him.

He wore many hats during his professional life. He was transferred almost 25 times in this duration.

After 2011, he took advisory roles in Kochi Metro, Jaipur Metro, Lucknow Metro, Coimbatore Metro and proposed projects in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.

In 2019, Sreedharan wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him not to agree to the Delhi Government’s proposal to make metro travel free for women commuters. Since Delhi Metro was constructed with the help of a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), he was worried about its repayments.

Awards

He has received numerous national and international honours for his work in transforming the way people commute. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2001 and felicitated with the Padma Vibhushan in 2008. He was awarded the French government’s Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2005 and he was also named as one of Asia’s Heroes in 2003 by TIME magazine.

Conclusion

E Sreedharan is a deeply spiritual man and a staunch follower of the Bhagvad Gita. Sreedharan’s basic mantra of doing doing things fast and cheaper is innovation. He is honest and morally upright in private and public life and stands firm, not ceding while discharging his duties with conviction.

He has kept his professional skills up-to-date. He has always considered holding in esteem the downtrodden in society. He has kept his body and mind rejuvenated and healthy so as to be able to work well in office.

He practices yoga and encourages his colleagues to do so.

He has systematically and doggedly wiped out every single obstacle in its path. Whether it is the treacherous terrain in the Konkan Railway project, or getting the money for the gigantic construction, he faced every challenge with determination and strong will power. With his inimitable skills of diplomacy, Sreedharan broke through all resistance—geological and political—stringing along everyone in laying out the engineering miracles.