Five days after an accident on a Metro stretch claimed six lives, Delhi Metro’s Managing Director Elattuvalapil Sreedharan said the city can now expect a more “strict” Metro chief in future.

Speaking to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Sreedharan said the accident has left him a more “chastened person”. Reputed to be a tough technocrat, Sreedharan said, “I will now have to be more stringent and strict with Metro workers, officers and even contractors.”

Sreedharan said he had decided to continue with the job —though he had put in his papers after the accident — because there was too much pressure from Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and his own workers. “I realised that I should not run away from my responsibilities. I realised the project will suffer and the nation would face a huge disgrace if it was not completed. I need to take responsibility,” he said, adding he was not indispensable to the Delhi Metro.

“My officers are extremely capable and any one of them can fill my shoes,” he said. He did not say who would step in after he retires once Phase-II is completed.

Dismissing allegations that the pace had been hastened ahead of the Commonwealth Games, Sreedharan said work along the stretch between Nehru Place and LSR College was actually ahead of schedule. “We plan a particular time frame for every project and it is very relaxed... work is done at a relaxed pace,” he said.

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