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Acc eptance Spe ech by D r . E . SreedharanI feel greatly honoured by the Cochin University of Science and

Technology conferring on me the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Scienceand I thank the Members of the Syndicate, the Pro-Vice Chancellor, theVice Chancellor, the Pro-Chancellor and His Excellency the Governor ofKerala, the Chancellor of the University, for selecting me for this greatdistinction. As the son of the soil, it is a matter of great pride for me to getthis recognition from my own native university. It is also a matter of greatsatisfaction that I am receiving this honour, in the com pany of two il lustrioussons of the soil, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of Indiaand Sri Kalam andalam Ram ankutty Nair, a doyen o f Kerala's classical art.I wish to congratulate both of them on this occasion. In fact, I stand beforeyou in their reflected glory.

I am sure, the university has selected me for this honour, inrecognition of the service I had rendered to the timely completion of theKonkan Railway and the Delhi Metro Project. These two mega projectswe re com pleted on tim e and w ithin the estim ated costs. Konkan Railway isa 760 km. long Broad Gauge line from Mumbai to Mangalore, along theW est Coas t of India. It passes through one o f the m ost difficult terrains everencountered in the history of railway construction in this country. KonkanRailway has changed the life style and travel pattern of the people of theKonkan region. Delhi Metro project is being hailed as the proudestachievem ent of mode rn India. Delhi Metro has shown to the world that Indiais capable of planning and executing technically com plex me ga projects tointernational standards. These two projects are shining examples of howGovernm ent projects can be com pleted on time and without cost over-runs.By honouring me with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, theuniversity has honoured the engineers who had helped me to successfullycomplete these two projects. On their behalf I accept this honour.

W hat is that which has m ade Konkan R ailway a nd the Delhi Metroto stand different from other Go vernm ent projects? It is not m erely the sizeof the projects or the technical complexities. It is the style and manner inwhich they were handled that made them different. These two organizations,(Special Convocation H andbookUSAT 2010 )

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viz. the Konkan Railway Corporation and the Delhi Metro RailwayCorporation, have a very different style of handling projects. They have aunique Work Culture and Organizational Values. The cardinal pillars of theWork Culture are: -

Punctuality;Integrity;Professional Competence; andSocial accountability.

Punctuality is nothing but courtesy and consideration for the time ofothers. Punctuality enabled adhering to the tight time schedule for completionof works. The philosophy "unless we are punctual, we cannot expect ourtrains to be punctual" made this virtue a necessity. In Delhi Metro, punctualityis reckoned with a least count of 60 seconds. If a train is late by 60 seconds,it is deemed to have lost punctuality. We run about 2800 train trips everyday and carry 15 lakh passengers and our punctuality performance is99.97%. In regard to "Integrity", for us it does not mean just "honesty" orlack of "corruption". Integrity covers the whole range of our activities. For usintegrity means "having good moral values" and "absolute transparency" inwhatever we do. On the corruption index scale, Transparency Internationalhas put India as the 85 t h most corrupted country. We should all be ashamedand alarmed at the scale of corruption taking place in this country. This isIndia that was Bharath. Where are all our age-old traditions and the greatvalues and virtues handed over to us through our Scriptures and Spiritualtexts? If India has to gain its past glory and prosperity, mere economicgrowth or GDP growth alone is not enough. "S A T H Y A M E V A J A Y A TH E " isenshrined in our Constitution. We have to now practise "S A T H Y A A D P A R A MNAASTI " there is nothing greater than TRUTH. It is the Institutions like theCochin University of Science and Technology that should instil and imbibegood Values and Virtues in our student community so that when their turncomes, they can manage and rule the country in the most upright style andstandards.

The need for "professional competence" in handling projects doesnot require any emphasis. The country produces 2 million engineers a year.The best of them go abroad for higher studies and do not return. The next

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best, switch over to Manag em ent or IT Sector, with the result, at the groundlevel, there is an acute shortage of good and com petent engineers. There isa need for our technical institutions to improve the quality of technicaleducation and instil a pride for their profession. Our Prime M inister has seta target of one trillion billions of dollars (i.e. 44 lakh crore of rupees) to bespent for infrastructure creation in the 1 2 ' hPlan period. Where are theengineers needed to handle com petently so m any projects?

Now I come to the 4 th pillar of our Work Culture "Socialaccountability". In a p roject "Time is m oney". Each day the project is delayed,the cost goes up. In Delhi Metro Phase-II the cost of delay was calculatedas Rs.2.5 crore per day. We are using the Tax Payers' money forimplementing projects. The project authorities should realize, they have aresponsibility to provide the "best value" for the money entrusted to them.The projects have to be completed not only on time but within the budget.While doing so, they should ensure high quality and standard of work, andexecute the project causing the minimum inconvenience or dislocation tothe people with the least damage to ecology. Delhi Metro is a standingexample to this. We have created a world-class metro network, covering1 80 kms. in Delhi, in a short period of just 1 2 years with frontline technologies.Today Delhi is the fastest growing Metro System in the world and what ismore, the most profitable Metro. I wish the Work Culture and Values ofDelhi Me tro spreads to all areas of Go vernm ent functioning.

I want to express once again, my deep gratitude to the CochinU niversity of Science and Technology for having conferred on me the Degreeof H onorary Doctor of Science. If my acceptance of this honour can provideinspiration and motivation to the engineering students of this prestigiousU niversity, I feel satisfied.

Than king you all.

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