Dr E. Sreedharan, on his last official working day in Delhi Metro, was busy in Chennai helping Chennai Metro learn key lessons.
Counted as one the best technocrat managers, the country has had, the 79-year old Dr Sreedharan will hand over the reins of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), to his successor and colleague Mr Mangu Singh, on Saturday evening. Mr Mangu Singh oversaw the implementation of high-speed airport express line.
Dr Sreedharan, who retires from the organisation after 14 years, joined DMRC as the Managing Director on November 4, 1997. This was after successfully implementing the Konkan Railway project in difficult Western Ghats terrain. A year after, in 1998, the construction work for Delhi Metro started, and the first section of Delhi Metro was ready in 2002. Today, the Delhi Metro network is spread over 190 km in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Many of India's Government agencies – saddled with missing deadlines while working within the Government framework – have looked to him or for somebody “like him”. The latest to join the queue was the Highways Ministry while it looked out for a Chairman for the NHAI.
Dr Sreedharan plans to spend his post-retirement days in his native State, Kerala.