Metro Man. E Shreedharan turned 85

NEW DELHI: Metro Man E. Shreedharan turned 85 yesterday. He started his career as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode, before taking up engineering and joining the railways. 

 

He began to be popularly called 'Metro Man.' In 2005, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the government of France, and the Padma Vibhushan by the government of India in 2008. After 16 years of service with the Delhi Metro, he retired from service on 31 December 2011. He is consulting the Kochi, Lucknow and Jaipur Metro teams even now. 

 

In December 1964, a cyclone washed away parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameswaram to mainland Tamil Nadu. Sreedharan was put in-charge of the repair work and he restored the bridge in just 46 days, against a target of 6 months. 

 

Even though he retired in 1990, he was made CMD of the Konkan Railway project, which covered 760 kms and had over 150 bridges. There were 93 tunnels with a total length of 82 kms. 

 

The project was completed without cost or time overruns. He was then made the MD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and by mid 1997 all the scheduled sections were completed by their target date or before, and within their respective budgets.