I was reading an article, rather a set of articles published on India by the FORTUNE Magazine. And one was about the Delhi Metro. It was just a one page article, but I felt really good after reading it. What you and I saw in the movies all this while about people fighting against the corrupt politicians or the inefficient goverment. This feat is somewhat comparable to such themes. I still remember, i think, way back in 2002 when I was making a trip to Pilani, I saw these huge structures on the road and I was told that its part of the Metro Activities. Now, all this has happened only because of the hardwork of this 73 year old Sreedharan, a retired Railway Engineer, a PadmaShri recipient and TIME Magazine's Asia Man of the Year. So what was so special in this project - Sreedharan was allowed to choose his own team with a fair degree of autonomy and financial powers. More than 80% of contractors were paid for the jobs they did within 2 days of producing a bill. Sreedharan was promised minimum inteference from the goverment and mind you, all that happened and the project was finished in record time. The budget never bounced because if it did, then that would cost the Rail Company atleast 20 Million INR, everyday i guess.
In this rate, I am sure a number of heavy duty projects can be executed in India with no barrier for the success.
2 comments:
When i went in the metro in PARIS i was wishing bangalore had a similar one.. atleast we are moving towards some progress :))
the paris metro opened in 1900 and survived both world wars. in a highly democratic country like india, its not that easy. i'll be happy if my grandson gets to see a metro like paris' in madras or bangalore.
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