Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is an Indian engineer turned politician from Kerala who is credited with changing the face of public transport in India with his leadership in building the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro while he served as the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation between 1995 and 2012.
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is an Indian politician and engineer who is known for transforming the public transport sector in India. His leadership in the building of the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro is acknowledged globally. Sreedharan was the managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) between 1995 and 2012. The Metro Man, as Sreedharan is popularly known, has been awarded numerous times for his contributions. In 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government. In 2008, the Indian government awarded him the Padma Vibhushan. The French government, in 2015, awarded Sreedharan with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, which is considered as the highest French order of merit for both civil and military. The TIME magazine named him as one of Asia’s Heroes in 2003. In 2021, Sreedharan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party
He was born on June 12, 1932 in Karukaputhur in the district of Palakkad of Kerala to parents Keezhveettil Neelakandan Moosath and Ammaluamma. He did his primary education from Government Lower Primary School Chathannur, He then went on to Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and later to the Victoria College in Palghat. He completed his Civil Engineering degree from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, which is currently known as Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada (JNTU Kakinada).

In 1953, Sreedharan joined the Indian Railway Service of Engineers after clearing the Indian Engineering Services conducted by the UPSC. He has, over the years, worked on various projects leading different departments. In December 1964, a cyclone washed away parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameswaram to mainland Tamil Nadu and Sreedharan was put in-charge of the execution and he restored the bridge in just 46 days.The Railway minister’s Award was given to him in recognition of this achievement.
In 1970, as the deputy chief engineer, he was put in charge of the implementation, planning and design of the Calcutta metro, the first ever metro in India, Sreedharan not only completed this much heralded project but also laid down the foundation of modern infrastructure engineering in India. In October 1979, When Sreedharan took over the sick Cochin Shipyard, he turned the fortunes of the shipyard around and made sure its first ship was built while he was its chairman and managing director (CMD). In 1970, he was in charge of the implementation, planning, and design of the Kolkata Metro.
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 by the French government and was named one of Asia’s Heroes by TIME magazine in 2003.
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 (HLAG-ST) for a period of three years in 2015.