Sreedharan is CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007

The verdict is out and the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year for 2007 is Ellatuvalapil Sreedharan.

Metro Man Sreedharan, who was also the winner in the Public Service category, was chosen for achieving the near-impossible, for breaking through bureaucratic red tape and defying the naysayers of modern infrastructure-building to build the Delhi Metro.

The 76-year-old Sreedharan is the Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, its builder and executor. The Delhi Metro has proved to be a Godsend for the city as every morning, over six lakh Delhiites today use the network to commute to work.

Sreedharan faced numerous challenges. Bureaucratic red tape tried to delay his work. Contractors would not meet commitments. Corruption threatened to slow him down.

But the unassuming railway engineer never lost hope and never stopped believing in his project, which changed the face of urban transport in India.
With 56 kilometres of the network on track and only two more phases left to be completed, the $2 billion project is running ahead of time and strictly within budget.

In just two more years, the high-speed train will be accessible to every resident of Delhi.  

Meet the man behind the Metro
Sreedharan reports for work on the dot at 8.45 every morning, 15 minutes before his staff. Disclaiming that he is workaholic, Sreedharan says he simply likes to get the job done, for the job at hand is not just his duty but also his dharma.

Although Sreedharan is hardly ever seen in public, rarely gives interviews or attends public functions, his honesty and integrity are legends.

The Konkan Railway project came to him after he had retired from the Railways. It was a daunting task – 760 km of rail tracks from Mumbai to Kochi through the rugged mountains of the Western Ghats.

Environmentalists had protested and politicians said it could never be done. The project ran short of money. But in an unprecedented initiative, Sreedharan raised public bonds to finance it and today, the Konkan Railway chugs merrily down the coastline.

Sreedharan was also one of Time magazine's Asian heroes, but to CNN-IBN, and perhaps the rest of India, he is much more – one of modern India's greatest sons, one who is not just a dreamer but a builder and one who has dedicated his achievements to every Indian.