Wanted to quit, but Yogi Adityanath won’t allow: Sreedharan says

With the intention of reducing his work load, 85-year-old E Sreedharan visited Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath last month to offer his resignation from the role of advisor to the Lucknow and Kanpur Metro projects. But he returned to Kochi with more work. “He (Adityanath) said ‘I’m not allowing you to resign. In fact I’m also adding Varanasi, Agra and Meerut… and also Gorakhpur’,” said Sreedharan, seated in the conference room of the DMRC office in Kochi, on Thursday afternoon.

Sreedharan, known as Metro Man to many for his supervision of various Metro Rail projects, said that while surveys have begun in Gorakhpur, Agra and Meerut, “the first phase of the 10.5-km line of the Lucknow Metro is ready and waiting for inspection from the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety”.

Giving an update on the Metro plan in UP, Sreedharan informed that the “depot is ready in Kanpur” and the “project report of the Varanasi Metro is ready but has to be revised”.

He said: “Yogi wasn’t happy with the report. He doesn’t want any kind of construction to come up near the temple. It’s going to be underground and should be a light metro — fewer coaches with less vibration and noise.”

While many cities are working on Metro projects, Sreedharan believes there is still a long way to go. “China is constructing 300 km every year, we are only doing 22 km. If cities have to survive, it is essential to have the Metro. We should do at least 200 km per year.” Sreedharan spoke about a variety of subjects, including the RInFra-DMRC arbitration, speculations around his Presidential nomination and the pace of Metro expansion in India.

Regarding rumours of his presidential nomination, he laughed it off with “I was never approached…it was all media speculation. You can’t be the president of a country at 85!”

Source: The Indian Express

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chennai Metro | CMRL releases map of Phase 2 metro project

Image
Chennai: Chennai Metro Rail Limited has officially released a route map for its ambitious phase 2 metro project that will connect far-flung areas of the city through three corridors. In February, Metro Rail floated nine tenders for detailed design consultants and for soil tests. In one of the tenders, it has released a map of phase 2 with 104 stations, covering 107km. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 85,047 crore. Chennai Metro Phase II Network Map (PC: CMRL) However, after a review of the alignment, CMRL officials said they had increased the number of stations to 116 covering a total 107.55km along three corridors. The tenders CMRL has floated are also for corridor 3 (Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri SIPCOT) that covers the IT hub on the OMR and corridor 5 (Madhavaram to Sholinganallur). Corridor 4 that connect Light House to CMBT is likely to be extended up to Poonamallee at an additional cost of Rs 3,850 crore. A feasibility study is at present und...
Read more

Innovative SkyWay technologies: Future Transportation

Image
SkyWay string transport is an energy and transportation communicator of elevated overpass type. It uses electric vehicles on steel wheels riding on specific string rails. The main design differences of this system from other types of railroads of trestle design are pre-stressed tension of the structure, the absence of a continuous solid roadbed, low materials intensity in construction and visual simplicity. The main advantages are economic efficiency, environmental friendliness, durability, reliability, safety and, consequently, high market competitiveness. SkyWay transport is developing in three main areas: high-speed intercity type (up to 500 km/h, and in future, up to 1250 km/h with the transition to a pre-vacuum tube) urban passenger type (up to 150 km/h) and freight type. It has no analogues in its field with the ability to meet the entire range of transportation needs. In future it can be integrated into a unified global energy, information and transportation network, which will ...
Read more

Delhi Metro | DMRC to make phase-III project fully operational by March 2018

The Delhi Metro’s Phase III, an ambitious public transport intervention, will be almost fully operational by March 2018, bringing vast areas of the national capital into the fold of its fast expanding network. Stretches of the Pink and Magenta Lines, which will together measure over 90 km with 61 stations, will be thrown open starting this October and the entire corridors will be functional by next year. The 58-km-long Pink Line, which will connect Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar running along the arterial ring road that encircles the city, will be opened in stages between December 2017 and March 2018, according to the latest Phase III status report. However, a section of the corridor between Nizamuddin and IP Extension in East Delhi may not be operational by March as it is stuck due to issues pertaining to land acquisition. “The date for Nizamuddin to IP Extension section will be worked out after resettlement and rehabilitation issues at Trilokpuri are settled,” the report ...
Read more