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Indian
politicians never tire of proclaiming that their
country’s population is among the youngest in the world:
Every third person, they note, is aged 30 or less.
What
they don’t often acknowledge is that one of the biggest
heroes in this nation of young people—the person who is
doing more than most to put taxpayers’ money to work for
the benefit of citizens—is a railway engineer who turns
76 next week.
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, popularly known as India’s
“Metro Man,” is the managing director of Delhi Metro
Rail Corp., which operates the newly built world-class
subway that’s transforming the economy of India’s
capital, New Delhi. It’s also improving the city’s air
quality, altering its social life and even influencing
norms of individual behavior.
Funded
by government equity and debt and a soft loan from the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a
$2.3-billion, 65-kilometer (40-mile) section of the
project was completed in 2005, three years ahead of
schedule.
Not just
that: The stations are clean and spacious, littering is
almost non-existent, people wait their turn at the metal
detectors, the trains are comfortably air-conditioned
even during peak office hours, the waiting time is short
and trains are punctual 99.9 percent of the time.
Delhi
Metro has been such a hit that real-estate values have
already risen along the planned routes for the second
phase of the project, in which an additional 121
kilometers of tracks are being laid at a cost of $4.3
billion.
24-percent return
By 2011,
3 million commuters are expected to ride the subway
every day. By 2020, it will be bigger than the existing
London
underground network.
India’s
Institute of Economic Growth estimates that investment
in the project has a rate of return—including the
benefits from reduced air pollution—of 24 percent, an
extremely gratifying utilization of taxpayers’ money.
Sreedharan’s achievement has made other cities from
Lahore to London sit up and take note.
BusinessWeek called Sreedharan
India’s
“uncommon bureaucrat.” Sreedharan smiles at that
description, but he doesn’t agree with it. “I’m a
technocrat, not a bureaucrat,” he said in an interview
in his New Delhi office yesterday.
“In very
complicated projects, you can’t put a generalist at the
top,” he said. “The most competent person has to be
found, empowered and trusted.”
Delays
hurt
Sreedharan says he doesn’t wait for approvals.
“You
must have the courage, competence and conviction to do
the right thing,” he says, adding that he was a “little
disappointed” at the slow pace at which other Indian
cities have handled their subway projects.
One
example is the proposed metro in the southern Indian
city of Hyderabad. It is delayed because the Planning
Commission—a relic of India’s socialist past that ought
to have been shut down long ago—wanted to vet the
concession agreement.
“The
delay doesn’t pinch the Planning Commission,” he said.
“It pinches the public.”
At
business schools, Delhi Metro is already a case study.
The reason that analysts give for its outstanding
success is the rare degree of freedom the government
gave Sreedharan.
Not only
is the project more expensive than most of India’s
defense purchases, it also creates jobs and rents out
land and advertising space to businesses.
For
politicians to let something this valuable slip out of
their control is rare in
India.
Secret
of success
One
theory is that the government was desperate for results:
New Delhi and its surrounding areas had a population of
16 million in 2006 and more than 5 million motorized
vehicles on the roads last year; without a metro, the
city, which will host the Commonwealth Games in 2010,
would have choked to death.
Journalists have other explanations for what makes
Sreedharan tick. Some say it’s the respect for age in
Indian culture. Others will tell you about his stamina,
the yoga he does every morning after waking up at 4.30
a.m.; that, and the vegetarian diet.
In
reality, Sreedharan’s biggest strength is the rapport he
has with the public.
At
construction sites, his wardens manage the traffic (and
anecdotal evidence says they do a better job than
regular traffic policemen).
When the
service became operational, Sreedharan got volunteers to
help people become familiar with escalators, which
provided a novel experience for many of his customers,
and, at least initially, not a very pleasant one.
Dearth
of talent
There
have been hundreds of lawsuits against Delhi Metro,
mostly about land acquisition. In view of the
overwhelming public interest in the project, courts have
been wary to issue stay orders.
There’s
so much of Sreedharan in the success of Delhi Metro that
one wonders if India will be able to replicate it
elsewhere, especially in projects run by the government,
which doesn’t attract top talent anymore.
Letting
the private sector take the lead seems to be the only
realistic option for India to ease its acute shortage of
infrastructure—roads, ports and power stations—even
though it may ultimately be a costlier option for the
taxpayer and the consumer. If only
India
had 100 more public servants of the caliber of its Metro
Man. |
