Page 224 - Coffee TB Final 30-3-2023

A LEGACY
ABIGAIL ADAMS
“It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific
station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a
vigorous kind are formed in contending with difficulties”
A project that took a full Century to unfold and,
when constructed, came to be known as an
'Engineering Marvel' and continues to elicit awe,
could never be expected to have its foundations
and further growth on fragmented and
spasmodic leadership. The Konkan Railway
project has seen the light of day and continues
to positively influence the people of the region as
well as the railways in the country due to the
successive visionaries who have implemented
their blueprint of a successful railway over the
last 25 years.
While it took persistent efforts by
Shri A B Walawalkar, Barrister Nath Pai,
Shri Ramakrishna Hegde, Professor Madhu
Dandavate and by Shri George Fernandes to
realize the dream of the Konkan Railway line, it
was finally left to the engineering acumen of
HOME
Dr E Sreedharan
Dr E Sreedharan, a retired Member (Engg.) of
the Railway Board and Indian Railway Service of
Engineers (IRSE) officer, to bring this dream from
paper into reality. He had already exhibited his
skills with, amongst others, rehabilitation of the
famous Pambam Bridge at Rameshwaram,
work of the Kolkata Metro and reviving the
productivity of Cochin Shipyard Limited. A
railway line along the highly formidable West
Coast of India was a huge
which Dr Sreedharan accepted as a challenge at
a time when all others had expressed
impracticality of constructing
line in the region.
For a man who was known to complete projects
against stiff deadlines, the Konkan Railway
project was a big opportunity to prove the
supremacy of man over Nature.
construction period of 7 years of Konkan
Railway was entirely spent on leading and
guiding a team to find solutions and implement
those solutions on the field. Metre by metre the
railway line was constructed and the end of each
day was either marked with frenzied jubilation on
having successfully completed a difficult task or
desperation for finding a solution for overcoming
a challenge.
Engineering officers used to work day & night.
Engineers caught a wink or two at the site itself
and stayed awake supervising the work.
Dr Sreedharan would visit sites and interact
directly with the junior engineers to know the
problems being faced at the site. As the
Chairman and Managing Director of Konkan
Railway Corporation, his mind was not just busy
in ensuring that the railway line was constructed
in stipulated time but also handling the
environmentalists and arranging for finances for
task the construction at a time when the interest
rates were very high.
Wide use of precision equipments, heavy
imported machineries, well-chosen contractors,
a railway excellence in project planning and execution - all
of these were the major factors that contributed
in early completion of the project. But foremost
of all, it was the never-say-die spirit of
Dr E Sreedharan that saw this incredible project
through.
The
Shri B Rajaram
If the construction was led by the legendary
Dr E Sreedharan, the challenges of train
operations were successfully met by his
successors. Shri B Rajaram, who was the
Chief Engineer and later Director (Project) in
Konkan Railway, took over the reins from
Dr Sreedharan in 1998. An M.Tech from
IIT/Kharagpur, he was involved with
construction of the railway line from 1990 itself.
Shri Rajaram kept the spirit of innovation alive
even when the train operations commenced and
is credited with invention of a number