All about ‘Metro Man’ Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, BJP’s chief minister candidate in Kerala

Elattuvalapil
Sreedharan, also known as the ‘Metro Man’ of India for his significant contribution
in transforming the face of country’s urban public transportation, will the BJP’s chief minister candidate in the upcoming Kerala assembly elections. The announcement was made by party state president K Surendran ahead of the assembly elections in Kerala due in May.

“Sreedharan, the man behind India’s metro rail network, had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party during the party’s ‘Vijay Yatra’ held in February.

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Here is everything you need to know about the engineer-turned-politician, Elattuvalapil Sreedharan:

Born in Kerala’s Karukaputhur, Sreedharan completed his civil engineering from Government Engineering College, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. In 1970, Sreedharan headed a project on planning and design of Calcutta metro.

The legendary engineer then travelled across the world to collect information on the technology behind the Metro, over-bridges, railways and other infrastructural projects and made tremendous contribution while leading the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro project. He was later made Delhi Metro chief.

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Sreedharan retired as Delhi metro chief in 2011 to join as principal advisor of the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) in 2014. He resigned from LMRC following health crisis.

Sreedharan was also a member of United
Nations’ high-level advisory panel on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST) for a
period of three years in 2015.

Awards & Honours

The 88-year-old pioneer engineer was honoured with Padma Shri in 2001 and Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award of India in 2008.

Sreedharan is also a recipient of the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of
Honour, 2005) by the government of France, and the Order
of the Rising Sun–Gold and Silver Star awarded by the Japanese government in 2013.

Political orientation

Sreedharan’s inclination towards BJP has been evident even before the announcement. He endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 general election campaigns and praised his governance in Gujarat time and again.

As for the opposition, the engineer was critical of Arvind
Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party’s idea of providing free commute to women in Delhi
Metro trains, and had said that the scheme would result in bankruptcy of the
Delhi metro.