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The man on the right track: E Sreedharan

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Preeti
New Update

INDIA: Another man who needs no introduction. His name pops up the moment one thinks of the grand change in Delhi's transport scene with the metro rail.

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To a bustling city, struggling with congestion, this icon has offered the respite of a much better public transport system than what anyone could conceived in those times.

His story is not just about the phenomenal milestone he achieved relentlessly, but more about all the small stations he conquered on the way. The angels, like devils, are also in the details.

As the Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC), he has taught us a lot for almost a decade and a half. Much has been heard and lauded when words like hard work, vision, leadership etc are mentioned in the same breath as one takes his name.

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But what really makes him a big reference point for any change agent is his panache with project management potholes, his crystal clear radar, and rigorous respect for deadlines.

An engineer as his CV might read, he boarded the train of his professional life at Southern Railway as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in 1954. As some media reports rightly point, his poise and leadership started manifesting way before the Delhi Metro project. When a tide washed away parts of Pamban bridge that connected Rameshwaram to mainland Tamil Nadu, a deadline of six months was set for the bridge to be repaired. It turns up that Sreedharan's boss squeezed it down to three months.

Now Sreedharan was given the reins of execution and what may not seem surprising (now that we know his abilities, but what naturally shocked a lot then) was the outcome. He resurrected the bridge in flat 46 days. 

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He kept repeating his panache with different challenges flagged before him time and again. Like when in 1970, he was entrusted with the challenge of implementing the project of Calcutta Metro or when Rani Padmini, the first ship under Cochin Shipyard was planned. He always vanquished deadlines in his own stride.

It was after retirement that the real swan songs could be heard from a career's twilight. His illustrious performance and assiduity had etched a mark with the Government too and that led the way to his appointment as the CMD of Konkan Railway on contract in 1990. He proved his mettle again in this unique avant-garde BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) project in a matter of seven years, media reports reveal.

With even 93 tunnels along a length of 82 km and a tunneling required through soft soil, this massive public sector project was accomplished sans any cost or time creeps. Not surprisingly towards 2005, he got another challenge as the Managing Director of Delhi Metro.

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Not much needs to be said here now that we know the icon and his surprising tale with this big project. But at the risk of iterating some things: Adherence to deadlines is one fine layer that can be gleaned here as a change management dictum.

Strict discipline for targets, time-wise or budget-wise, was always kept under his leadership. That too, without being mired under typical issues like red-tape, corruption or bureaucracy.

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He put the spotlight back on how much power and autonomy actually is available to public servants and how rarely that is exercised.

Taking initiative is another big gap that he conspicuously filled with many projects and exemplified for others. In fact, as can be spotted in news reports, he once remarked commenting on the cost vs. efficiency trade-off in a bureaucratic set-up with these lines. "If you need to be treated for some disease "You do not go to a L1 doctor, do you?"

This illustrates how well and with integrity he would have navigated stifling issues, project management problems or limitations of working with the lowest bidder in public sector project.

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These qualities mattered a lot. If one goes by some estimates as reported, the delay of one day would cost the project Rs 1.5 crore in the first phase, and this went up to about Rs 2.5 crore in the second phase, and hence there was absolutely no scope for creeps. Sreedharan strongly ensured that area with his ace time and project management capabilities, and in fact even equipping the team with foreign consultancy wherever required. Taking expert help from outside, is no more frowned upon. 

Professional competence, fast decision making, looking at the potential rather than past benchmarks, eliciting co-operation with honesty, delegation of powers, using deadlines as motivation, undeterred discipline, unflinching work ethics are some of his special traits that media has highlighted with awe.

Discipline took new contours when it came to working with him, quite unlike the present stressed out flavour. It has been often pointed out how he still managed to never stay in the office beyond 6pm, and has also never liked people working late too.  Just giving one's hundred per cent in the given hours did the trick as one can see evidently now.

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He also exemplifies how one should stay focused and passionate. He has shown that by staying unstirred in the wake of a series of awards and even some flak sometimes, and projects him as a man of innate substance.

It is clear why even now his masterpiece continues to draw admirers and students, nationally as well as internationally. That explains why Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has also been awarded with the work of Management Consulting Services by Jakarta Metro Rail Project, wherein, DMRC will be working in a joint-venture with eight international companies. 

He has been anointed with the title of Chevalier de la a Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the Government of France, among many other honours.  As a consulting beacon for many other projects like Hyderabad and Bombay, he has continued spreading his wisdom and experience.

Like a happy on-track train whistling its way through tough mountains; Sreedharan has taught us how to earn the real miles, without compromising the big things. The journey as many hope is far from the final junction.