‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan, who is credited with changing the face of the public transport system in the country, is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the assembly elections in Kerala due in May. The 88-year-old is open to contesting elections if the ‘party wants’.

BJP state president K Surendran said Sreedharan, the man behind India’s metro rail network, will join the BJP during the party’s ‘Vijay Yatra’ starting on February 21 from Kerala’s Kasaragod, reports PTI.

Sreedharan, whose stint as the head of Delhi Metro ended in 2011, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008. Even after his retirement, Sreedharan helped with Metro rail projects in Kochi, Jaipur and Lucknow.

Asked if he would contest election, Sreedharan told NDTV, “I am open to contesting electionsimplementa if the party wants.”

Earlier, he retired as a senior railway engineer in 1990. His good work track record landed him a role in the Konkan Railway project, which he was able to deliver before deadline. The Delhi Metro hired him in 1995, where again he impressed with his meticulous planning and strategic project implementation.

In 2015, Sreedharan was appointed by the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to serve on the United Nations’s High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport for three years