E. Sreedharan

Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, born June 12, 1932, is an Indian civil engineer and politician from Kerala known as the Metro Man for transforming India public transportation infrastructure. He completed the 760 kilometer Konkan Railway, with 93 tunnels and more than 150 bridges, in seven years under a build operate transfer arrangement without major cost or time overruns, and as managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation from 1995 to 2012 he oversaw the completion of its scheduled sections on time and within budget, work widely praised in India. He later served as principal advisor on the Kochi Metro, which drew recognition for employing transgender workers and using solar power. His honors include India Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and Padma Shri in 2001, France Chevalier de la Legion d honneur in 2005, and recognition from Time magazine as one of Asia Heroes in 2003; he briefly entered active politics with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021 before stepping back by the end of that year. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/