Did you know that the famous “Metro Man” — E. Sreedharan who was the Managing Director at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for quite a long time wasn’t infact the first choice to be the MD. He was one of the people who were incharge of selecting the MD for DMRC and ended up becoming the MD.
A new book, 25 Management Strategies for Delhi Metro’s Success: The Sreedharan Way, written by Delhi Metro’s chief public relations officer Anuj Dayal, has more such interesting information about Metro Man and DMRC.
Dayal mentions that a lot of people from around the world have been coming to the capital to understand the functioning of the Delhi Metro. “We have had people from Harvard, Yale, Toronto, Bolton and many other Universities in the last few years. We have been making presentations for these institutions from time-to-time. We have made them understand the functioning of Delhi Metro, the plan that was chalked out by E. Sreedharan and the other details,” says Dayal, who thought of putting all of that together in a book.
“People from Indian Administrative Services and the Indian Army as well come to us to know about the work of Delhi Metro. The book is a handy guide that will help many,” he adds.
Indeed it will help. Management professionals and students in the city say that they have been waiting for a biography of the Metro Man for a long time. “Whatever Mr Sreedharan has done is so inspiring. The hard work that he and his team have put in has made Delhi Metro a big success. I admire him a lot and have saved many of his interviews and articles,” says management student Abhimanyu Sinha.
Abhishek Sinha, operations officer, Indian Oil Skytanking Ltd., thinks that Sreedharan has indeed spearheaded a revolution in India. “It’s not just about connecting and maintaining the Metro service in Delhi but the strategies and planning about how to do that. It was difficult to chalk out a plan in a city that was choc-a-block horizontally. But then the man came up with the idea of vertical development and it is working fine. There are other things too, like he didn’t retire when it was scheduled. He wanted to complete the work first. Such dedication speaks volumes about his personality and sincerity,” says Abhishek.
Some students are keen to read his autobiography. “He has experienced a lot while planning and proceeding with the Delhi Metro. He should write about all his experiences in all these years. While the current book can be read as a case study, a biography will always be welcome,” says Shubham Kumar Saini, a final year student of BBA from Birla Institute of Technology.
Dayal says that many people have been trying to convince him to write about his life but he has not agreed. “But there’s a mention of little tid-bits from his life also in this book. Like, once he had a heart attack after one of the accidents on the construction site. The book tells the readers how he coped with that and bounced back,” he says.
With small anecdotes, the book also features some of the good qualities of E. Shreedharan, like punctuality, integrity, professional competence, good health and meeting targets.