Karmayogi: A Biography of E. Sreedharan

by M.S. Ashokan

It was curiously noted that Sreedharan had never uttered a word in public against his detractors. He would repeat his message firmly, as befitting a battle-wise warrior, in his inimitable style: he merely wanted to finish the project without delay and without corruption, simply for the benefit of the people.

Sreedharan was preparing to put his feet up. By then, DMRC was established for the Delhi Metro project. Sreedharan, originally on the committee appointed to scout for a managing director, found himself appointed for the job. In the initial period, he shouldered both responsibilities—the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro—shuttling between Mumbai and Delhi without respite. What amazed the people of Delhi was not just the construction of the most modern metro line, but the attention taken every step of the way to make sure that the everyday life of the citizens was not affected. The mission progressed at great speed and, notably, without impacting the environment. In just two years and nine months, the first phase of the Delhi Metro was completed, three months earlier than originally scheduled, and without cost overruns of even a single rupee above the estimated Rs 10,500 crore. The project’s 124-kilometre second phase, projected to cost Rs 24,000 crore and estimated to lose Rs 2.5 crore every single day of delay, took only four and a half years to commission. In the annals of metro development projects, it was indeed a world record. Let us reflect for a minute to put all these achievements in perspective: they happened in a nation where building a simple, functional bridge or a narrow road in a panchayat generally costs tens of lakhs of rupees and happens at such an excruciatingly slow pace as to be of little real benefit.

The most important achievement, he would say, was that our engineers were instilled with a self-confidence that enabled them to work competently. These engineers came from modest backgrounds and did not have a pedigree education, proving that all they needed was the backing of people such as Sreedharan to produce world-class work.

Sreedharan revealed his magic mantras at their behest: be honest in your private and public life in such a way that you don’t need to try hard to convince anybody; stand firm and do not cede an inch while discharging your duties with conviction; polish your professional skills and do not let it go out of date; keep your integrity so you hold in esteem even the most downtrodden in the society in your plans; be moral; follow habits that rejuvenate both your body and mind.

While diligently adhering to the protocols of official life, Sreedharan unleashed his biting criticism of wayward bureaucracy, whenever opportunity called for it. He openly said that those who could not make useful decisions were a negative influence on the nation’s progress, and that they were not really interested in doing anything to begin with. His comment—‘the sole intent here seemed to be to block anyone who wanted to do something worthwhile’—was directed at those who argued against the Delhi Metro project during its nascent stages. His warning that it would cost taxpayers Rs 1.4 crore for every day of delay hit the spot. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers who had made disapproving noises bore the brunt of Sreedharan’s onslaught. He argued that it was too technical and complex a project for IAS officers to be able to micromanage it on the strength of their administrative skills alone.

Sreedharan’s love for the Gita begins with its message of summoning the full potential of human gifts to do selfless actions for the good of everyone.

As soon as he retired from DMRC, top-notch corporations in India approached Sreedharan with offers that would lure just about anyone. A major enterprise sweetened the pot, asking him to name any position and offered a remuneration no less than Rs 20 lakh a month. None of these offers could bridge the distance Sreedharan kept from for-profit institutions throughout his life. Nothing could lure him to reassess his determination to live the rest of his life on his pension from the Indian Railways. Even in the years leading up to his retirement from full-time work, he would not take a rupee from the DMRC salary, which was entirely pledged to charity.

Religion, for Sreedharan, is being in the thick of action without concerning oneself with personal gains; it is about finding out what is best for the common good and submitting oneself to its fulfilment with great responsibility and excellence.

He has the weakest of the weak members of society factored in when he handles projects worth hundreds of crores. This is the reason why a large number of lay people rally proudly behind him as he stands tall, like Arjuna on the side of righteousness in the many battles of Kurukshetra. He would not hurt anyone with word or deed, and was a calming presence and a towering source of hope for many. He insists that all his accomplishments belong not to him, but to the common people who are the real stakeholders in all his endeavours.

Karyam karomi, Na kinchit aham karomi (I perform the deed. But I am not the one who does it.)

Gyanam, Param Balam Nahi Jnanena sadrusham pavitram iha vidyate

Sreedharan’s father was a stickler for rules and conventions, and made it a point that his children assimilated them in their everyday lives. He focused on imparting a good education to his children. It was his view that education would hold his children in good stead through their lives, more than any material wealth passed on to them.

Sreedharan used to play football. He did not join any of the clubs near his home though. He would come home from school and get busy with chores around the house, enthusiastically feeding the cows and watering the garden. He would do any job in good time, and judiciously. In the evening he would chant prayers. Being the youngest, he was showered with love and care.

His sister’s husband, Narayana Menon, personified healthy habits and hard work. He worked for the government, but was untouched by the unethical practices that were almost the custom for the average public servant. At the registration office, which was notorious for corruption, he was known for his high integrity. He was not well off, but he worked hard to raise an extended family on his meagre salary. Sreedharan admired his brother-in-law for his strength of character, which was to leave a deep impression on him and became for him a model to emulate.

India became an independent nation when Sreedharan was in tenth grade. He distinctly recalls the great rumble of those times, although he was not part of it. No one from his family was in politics. The groundswell of the freedom movement had reached Palakkad and its neighbourhood too. However, the family was hardly in a position to put themselves in any struggle bigger than their own fight for survival. Sreedharan too ended up not being part of the national struggle. But he remembers the time when Mahatma Gandhi came to speak at Kotta Maithanam. He had joined the crowds to hear him.

Sreedharan still prefers trains for long journeys if he can help it. One does not experience the tranquillity of the train journey on any other means of travel. The train is the best place to be to read, to immerse oneself in one’s thoughts, to sleep, or to simply rest. Sreedharan had devised many enjoyable ways to pass the time on his journeys. He especially likes to watch fellow passengers enter and exit trains, and simply savour the mundane, everyday railway sights that catch his attention.

He wondered how a society could benefit from investments that guarantee no quality!

‘The opportunity for an engineer to learn never ends until the very end of his life. Every experience will give you more strength. The reward for it will be better and more opportunities to serve your country.

‘Gynameva param balam—As the saying goes, knowledge is the greatest strength. Nahi njanena sadrisham pavitramiha vidyate—ancient wisdom from India says there is nothing bigger than knowledge. If one has gathered knowledge and technical skills, he is equipped with a great inner strength to carry out any task. Your boss or supervisor will respect you as much as you are successful at your work. Your peers will follow and admire you for your accomplishments. This is the lesson I have learnt from the fifty-nine years of my career.

The growth of any nation depends on how engineering plays its part in it.

There used to be a practice in India where students were to give tribute—guru dakshina—to their teachers who had imparted knowledge to them. Your tribute to your teachers must be a pledge to stand by professional ethics and your sense of values.

There were several pressure groups in the union. Some of them got together to dub Sreedharan an enemy of the workers. On the contrary, Sreedharan never showed any interest or dislike for any political ideology or leader, observed A.J. Antony, the production manager who had worked with Sreedharan. Sreedharan’s thrust was to create a healthy environment for the workers to do their best, and the only way to make that happen was to address their concerns.

Sreedharan would never tire of pointing out that the railways have had the least incidents of corruption among government organizations, even as it has continued to be the largest employer in the country.

G.P. Warrier was one such personality. His genius lay not only in the legacy of engineering he left at the railways, but in the path he pioneered, and his methods that became models to be followed for project management in the public sector.

M.N. Prasad says the opportunities and encouragement bestowed upon Sreedharan by Warrier played a significant role in shaping Sreedharan’s future accomplishments.

The most important lesson he taught was to adopt an uncompromising attitude towards completing every task efficiently and on time, while also assuring transparency of the highest order.

He recruited workers after scrutinizing their skills and pers...

There was no question of compromising on quality and efficiency. At the same time, anyone in his team could approach him for anything. He was the model Sr...

The Kollam–Ernakulam metre gauge line runs over several bridges. When the metre gauge lines were replaced with broad gauge ones, the only major component of the track that had to be removed was the girders. He had constructed the bridges several decades ago, and in such a way that they were sturdy and durable enough to accommodate future developments.

Sreedharan and his team had determined to pace the project at the fastest they could by employing the best technology available in the world. This was perhaps the first decision taken about choice of technology. The target was to build tracks to allow train speeds of 160 kilometres per hour.

Going by the history and practice of displacement and rehabilitation in India and the tardiness of its legal system, acquisition of land on this scale would have taken one hundred years. The Konkan team got more than half of the land it needed, well within the first year of KRCL’s inception.

The only way to complete the project within the allocated time was to do the hard work harder.

The emphasis in the Konkan team was on collective action based on mutual trust.

The promise to contractors that no decision would take more than forty-eight hours ever was one that was set in stone.

Decisions were taken on the spot when it was so required. The fast and unambiguous directions that came as a result of the process Sreedharan had set in helped accelerate the project’s progress.

P. Sreeram, who had been with Sreedharan since 1970, recalled an incident during his time at Konkan. Construction of a major tunnel was on, and as the work progressed, the machine got stuck in a huge rock. Sreeram explained the situation to the CMD, who happened to be at the site. There was no option but to stop the day’s work, except if another tunnel was bored to remove the rock, Sreeram suggested. ‘Then we are doing it,’ Sreedharan said. Sreeram was not sure when he could start working on the second tunnel. ‘Right now!’ Sreedharan responded as though this question should never have been raised. Sreeram’s apprehensions were about the approval and budget needed for the additional work. He told Sreedharan so. ‘That should never be an issue. Let me worry about it. What’s worse would ...

Digging into the belly of towering mountains to carve tunnels into them under the ever-present danger of falling rocks and mudslides was never going to be a trivial matter. The constant threat of mishap lurked every step of the way. The technology and machinery available in the country were never going to be a match to this gargantuan task. Sreedharan and his team prepared to travel around the globe to get appropriate machinery for the mission.

The bridge could not have been built without the efficient and accurate application of the technology.

He would respond to future crises during the course of project delivery in exactly the same way. His thoughtful views on development projects had always been that suggestions and opinions have value and their rightful place during the planning phase.

The mission needed 6 lakh tonnes of cement, 80,000 tonnes of iron, 2 lakh tonnes of structural steel and 1 lakh tonnes of rails. Land acquisition had cost Rs 144.8 crore. Preparation of lands for construction cost Rs 473.15 crore; bridge construction Rs 332.11 crore; tunnels Rs 538 crore; laying of tracks Rs 488.65 crore and railway stations Rs 71.02 crore.

The success of the Konkan mission earned international repute for Sreedharan. Post-independent India had undertaken numerous big-ticket projects in the sectors of rail, roads and irrigation. The Konkan mission had been an incredibly daring one. The media celebrated Sreedharan as nothing short of a superhuman. The construction of the Konkan line had become a textbook model for future projects. Amid all the celebrations, Sreedharan openly acknowledged the freedom he had enjoyed and the authority he was able to wield while in the top post at KRCL, which was a new entity and remarkably different from the railways. There had been several obstacles in his path, created by political and official cliques, and he had had no choice but to take them on. The responsibilities began from finding funds for the mission and stretched to solving everyday issues at the worksites. There was no way he could have achieved anything without the support and trust of his colleagues—this was how Sreedharan viewed the Konkan mission.

The only condition Sreedharan demanded was complete freedom in delivering the project and selecting his team, which the panel readily agreed to.

The Cabinet Secretary at the time, T.S.R. Subramanian, took a bold decision. On the file that processed the candidature, he wrote, ‘If this country could be governed by a seventy-five-year old, why could not a sixty-five-year-old Sreedharan run an organization such as DMRC?’ He made a compelling endorsement of Sreedharan’s candidature. The move was quite unprecedented. Before Sreedharan’s appointment, a government servant of that age had never been appointed in a comparable institution, and it has not happened since. It was the administration’s trust in Sreedharan’s capability that drove them to go the extra mile to have him at the helm of a new venture.

Sreedharan officially took up the new job on 4 November 1997. In the beginning, DMRC did not even have a building to function out of. Two rooms, one each offered by the Union ministry for urban affairs and Rail Bhavan, were its temporary offices. The room in the ministry’s office was occupied by Pahuja, Gupta and Rajwade, while the registered office of the Konkan Railway in Rail Bhavan seated Sreedharan and Unni. Here began the initial legwork for DMRC. Soon, an office was set up in the Pragati Vihar hostel building near Lodhi Road. In the early days, the hostel did not have enough amenities, including electricity and water, to run the shop. Yet, the entire planning for the metro was done according to schedule, despite these inconveniences. To expand the office, three floors of the building were later leased and furnished.

Ethics and personal integrity for an employee at DMRC were as indispensable as their professional skills if they were to stay on. According to Sreedharan, to be honest at DMRC meant more than the mere meaning of the word. It was not enough to possess professional integrity, employees had to be seen as people with integrity so that everyone could recognize that trait in them instantly. The selection process had been a protracted one for exactly this reason, testing recruits for both honesty and competence. New recruits had to sign a document containing a nine-point code of conduct, declaring their commitment to ethics and moral values. Some of the codes ran thus: do not make illicit profit in the form of cash or otherwise while part of the organization; do not conspire or lobby for personal gains or self-aggrandizement; do not misuse the position for selfish gains; do not indulge in business or trade while being employed; do not indulge in immoral activities such as adultery; do assist in eliminating corruption, etc.

He kept reminding them that a technician’s concerns should not just be about the pay cheque or the benefits, or about the attainment of glory or climbing up the ladder of designations. The only way to gain respect and recognition from peers and supervisors was to acquire the deepest knowledge and skills of one’s job, and improve and adapt them to the changing times. Promotions and positions would naturally find them.

Sreedharan would gift each officer at the executive level a copy of the Bhagavad Gita with Swamy Vidya Prakashananda’s interpretation at the time of their recruitment. The Swamy belonged to the Sri Suka Brahma Ashram of Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. The gift undoubtedly communicated to its recipients what Sreedharan expected of them, and became an infinite source of motivation at DMRC. Sreedharan did not distribute the Gita to endorse a particular religion in his organization. He cherished the work as the foundational document of management practices with which to run DMRC. There was no better way to convey the message of fulfilling one’s karma in order to be beneficial to society, while also finding avenues to refresh oneself. The gift inspired its readers to brush all mounting troubles aside and immerse themselves in their duty. On Mondays, during the meeting of the department heads, the recitation of shlokas and discourse on them was a usual practice. Sreedharan had always believed in and championed the need to inculcate and reinforce such values in people, even during his school days.

The policy of empathy and leniency towards contractors adopted at KRCL was followed in Delhi too. In return, they remained loyal to DMRC’s objective of finishing the project on schedule. In fact, the contractors were treated as equal partners in the project. Clearing their bills on time was always the emphasis.

Sreedharan had later commented that the decision to go with broad gauge was the most severe blow he had endured in his entire career spanning half a century. The resilience and hard work DMRC had put in to annul the adverse outcomes from that poor decision was the only saving grace that prevented what could have been an unjustifiable loss of time and resources. Time itself proved that standard gauge was the right choice for future metros elsewhere in the country.

The first phase was finished, with the construction of the Dwarka–Barakhamba corridor of the Blue Line in October 2006. This phase consisted of three segments, and required Rs 10,000 crore in funds. With 59 stations, and a length of 65.11 kilometres, 13.01 kilometres through tunnels and 52.10 kilometres on elevated tracks, this phase, which was estimated to take ten years to build, took DMRC only seven years and three months to complete.