E. Sreedharan

He is married to Radha and regards his wife as a great pillar of support. The couple has four children, all of them are now well accomplished in their own chosen fields.

He regularly reads the Bhagwad Gita and tries to imbibe its teachings in his professional and personal life. He does not regard the Gita as a religious text, but as a handbook of advice on how to optimize life.

He is a very principled man who believes that time is money. Even though he is in his eighties, he still leads an active life and continues to advice the government on its metro and rail projects.

He was born in Palakkad district of Kerala on 12 June 1932. His family hailed from Karukaputhoor.

He received his early education from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School after which he went to the Victoria College in Palghat.

He chose to study engineering and completed his Civil Engineering from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

After completing his education he was appointed as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode. He worked there only for a short while before joining the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice.

In 1953, he appeared for the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and cleared it. He joined the Indian Engineering Service (IES) and was posted as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in the Southern Railway in December 1954.

He faced the first big challenge of his career in December 1964 when a cyclone damaged the Pamban Bridge in Tamil Nadu. The Railways allotted a period of six months for the repair works while Sreedharan’s boss wanted the work done within three. Sreedharan, who was made in-charge of the restoration, executed the work in just 46 days.

In 1970, Sreedharan was assigned the responsibility of implementing, planning and designing the Kolkata metro, the first ever metro in India. He was deputy chief engineer at that time.

With his hard work and determination he led the successful completion of the job and set the pace for the further development in infrastructure engineering in India. He was associated with the project till 1975.

The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in 2001.

The Government of France bestowed upon him The Order of Légion d'Honneur, the highest decoration in France, in 2005.

In 2008 he received the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in recognition of his work with the Delhi Metro.