The septuagenarian Metro chief flew back from outside Delhi following the accident and, after a brief inspection of the site, made a dramatic announcement of his resignation at a news conference.

“I am facing you with a great deal of pain and remorse,” Sreedharan said. “I take full moral responsibility of today’s incident and thereby resign. I have sent my resignation letter to the Chief Minister and the Lieutenant Governor.”

“Before I entered this chamber, I took the decision to resign and all my senior colleagues advised me not to take this decision. I normally don’t go against their advice, but this time I have asked them not to interfere.”

Late in the evening, Dikshit announced, “We have decided not to accept the resignation of E Sreedharan.”

PTI quoted an unnamed top official as saying, “At this time, we cannot let him go. That is why it was decided not to accept his resignation. He is a person of integrity.”

The chief minister’s principal secretary PK Tripathy had earlier said that Sreedharan was a “very emotional person”, and that the government would not take a “hasty decision” on the issue. A spokesman for the L-G had said the decision on accepting his resignation would have to be taken “at a political level”.

Sreedharan was not immediately available for a comment.

The resignation of India’s celebrated ‘Metro Man’ was triggered by the worst-ever mishap in the history of the Delhi Metro, on the upcoming Central Secretariat-Badarpur line of Phase II of the project, at around 5 am. Two people had died in a similar accident on October 19, 2008 at Vikas Marg in east Delhi.

Sreedharan described today’s accident as a “bigger blot”. “For ten years we have maintained a high standard of work atmosphere at the construction sites. What happened last year was a blot on DMRC but we feel this is a bigger blot and a more serious incident,” he said.

The 77-year-old Kerala-born engineer-administrator who has been at the helm of the Metro project since 1997, said that the “dimension and complexity” of the project notwithstanding, the loss of lives was unacceptable.

“Projects of this dimension and complexity have never been attempted before. There were accidents even in Phase I but not of this gravity. But people have had high expectations and image of DMRC. Whether it is a small incident or not, an accident is an accident. I can take a challenge that no other organisation has such high standards of safety. We are still high on our standards but one casualty is still too many for DMRC,” Sreedharan said.

Asked if the Metro’s remarkable record of finishing projects on time — universally admired across India and in many countries abroad — would be affected by his resignation, he said: “Perhaps if a new man comes that may have a setback to the project but my personal conviction about this cannot be compromised. No one is indispensable in any organisation and there are more competent people in the industry.”

“My successor will be decided by the Delhi government. This may not be my mistake but as the head of the organisation I have to take responsibility and I think it is right to resign.”

Through the hours between Sreedharan’s press conference and Dikshit’s statement, DMRC officials speculated on the fate of Metro projects should their boss leave, with a consensus emerging that they would almost certainly suffer. The Indraprastha-Noida line is slated to open in August, the Inderlok- Mundka line in November and the Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar line in December.

Sreedharan, who put DMRC on the world map — Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, Syria and Vietnam have sought the corporation’s expertise — is associated with several other Metro projects in the country, including the Mumbai Metro, the high-speed railway link from Bangalore’s city centre to the airport, and Kolkata’s new Metro project.

He is also a member of the working group on urban transport including mass rapid transport systems for the 11th Five Year Plan under the urban development ministry. He was earlier on a high-profile panel that helped a Committee of Secretaries look into the privatization of Delhi and Mumbai airports.