Metro Man’ E Sreedharan has been invited to the United Nations’ High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST). He has been invited by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to serve on his HLAG-ST. The service is for a period of three years and Sreedharan has accepted the offer.

The Advisory Group would provide recommendations on sustainable transport actionable at global, national, local and sector levels. The Advisory Group will work with Governments, transport providers (aviation, marine, ferry, rail, road, and urban public transport), businesses, financial institutions, civil society and other stakeholders to promote sustainable transport systems and their integration into development strategies and policies, including in climate action.

“Metro Man” E Sreedharan

• E. Sreedharan was born on 12 June 1932 in Pattambi in the Palakkad district of Kerala.
• He worked as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode.
• He joined the Indian Engineering Service (IES), after clearing ESE-1953 conducted by the UPSC.
• In December 1964, a cyclone washed away parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameswaram to mainland Tamil Nadu. The Railways set a target of six months for the bridge to be repaired.  Sreedharan was put in-charge of the execution and he restored the bridge in just 46 days.
• He was made the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail corporation (DMRC) and by mid-1997. All the scheduled sections were completed by their target date or before, and within their respective budgets.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2008, the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2005 and named one of Asia’s Heroes by TIME magazine in 2003.