Sreedharan to retire tomorrow; Mangu Singh to take over

E Sreedharan will retire as DMRC chief tomorrow and hand over reins to colleague Mangu Singh after a highly successful 16-year tenure during which he transformed the capital's transport sector through Metro.

E Sreedharan will retire as DMRC chief tomorrow and hand over reins to colleague Mangu Singh after a highly successful 16-year tenure during which he transformed the capital8217;s transport sector through Metro.

79-year-old Sreedharan,who joined the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in 1995,will formally hand over charge to Singh,a veteran Civil Engineer,tomorrow evening at a brief ceremony at the 8216;Metro Bhawan8217; here.

The iconic 8216;Metro Man8217;,who changed the way Delhi travels by constructing the modern transport system in the capital in a short span of time,will retire after having worked in government service for over 58 years of which 16 years he spent in Delhi Metro.

After his retirement,Sreedharan plans to spend his post-retirement days in his native village in Thrissur district of Kerala.

In an interview with PTI recently,Sreedharan summed up his experiences in Delhi Metro as 8220;very satisfying8221; and attributed the organisation8217;s success to the 8220;different work culture8221; and fast decision making process.

56-year-old Singh,a civil engineer from Roorkee University,will assume office tomorrow,a DMRC spokesman said.

Singh,who oversaw the high-speed Airport Express Line,is Sreedharan8217;s choice to step into his shoes as the 8216;Metro Man8217; wanted an engineer of repute to take over the charge.

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Singh is an Indian Railways Service of Engineers IRSE officer of the 1981 batch and worked with Sreedharan in the Kolkata Metro project. He has been associated with the Delhi Metro since its inception.

During his 16-year tenure,Sreedharan not only gave a modern transport system to the capital but also brought in a system at the organisation which is known for completing its project well before schedule.

Under his leadership,the Delhi Metro grew leaps and bounds since it began operations in 2002 with its network now spreading across the National Capital Region.

After its launch in 2002,Delhi Metro slowly added several corridors to its network over the years thus bringing satellite cities of Noida,Gurgaon and Ghaziabad closer to the national capital.

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The first ever Metro service was started on December 24,2002 between Shahdara and Tis Hazari and the ridership has increased leaps and bounds over the nine years to reach 20 lakh passengers a day.

Singh is also in-charge of the Delhi Metro8217;s Phase-III that envisages bringing another 103 km of the capital under the Metro network.

The engineer is also in-charge for consultancy works undertaken by Delhi Metro for planning Metro systems in cities like Mumbai,Chennai,Hyderabad,Kolkata,Ahmedabad and Kochi.