Since July 2004 he’s been Managing Director for Roma Metropolitane S.r.l., the city-owned company responsible of the coordination and control of the whole enacting process of a 10 billion Euros works plan concerning the development, modernization and expansion of Rome’s subway network, public transport corridors and innovative transport systems, wire ones included, and every other intervention regarding public transportation with dedicated lanes, and connected and/or complementary works, to be realized in the City of Rome. He is Vice-Chairman of the Management Board of IGI Istituto Grandi Infrastrutture. He is Professor at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Business College, Master of Innovative Management in Public Administration. He is Contracted Professor of Project management at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Architecture College.

C. C. Chang is Responsible for Operations, Marketing & Property Development Department, as well as Safety, Information Systems and Public Relations. Now, Mr. C. C. Chang is focusing on building a “Profit Oriented Metro System”, trying to build a revolutionary concept and method on operating metro system. Moreover, he is creating a real sustainable metro ─ focusing on FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY.

Mr. Richard C.L. Chen, chairman of Taipei Transit Corporation(TRTC), was born in 1949 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree, both in civil and transportation engineering, from the National Taiwan University. Prior to assuming the present position, Mr. Chen had served in the Department of Rapid Transit Systems under the Taipei City Government as deputy chief engineer, chief secretary, spokesman, and deputy director general. He also taught courses on transportation field at the National Chiao-Tung University and National Taiwan Ocean University as an associate professor.

In recognition of Mr. Chen’s distinguished governmental, academic, and professional service, numerous awards have been conferred to him. They include Medal of the Year for 2001 from the Chinese Institute of Transportation, Medal of the Year for 1997 from the China Road Federation, Outstanding Spokesman for 1996 from the Public Relations Foundation, and Model Employee for 1995 from the Taipei City Government. He was also honored as an outstanding Alumnus, by National Taiwan University Alumni Association, 2007.

Francesco Di Maio was born in Italy in 1945. He took a degree with honours in Engineering and a master at Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris in Turin.

He has experience in the automation sectors of big industrial groups as FIAT and Olivetti and became responsible for production lines. Francesco has a broad experience in the project management of complex and multidisciplinary projects.

Previously, he was Technical Director, responsible of construction and purchase in Ansaldo Trasporti, then Operations Director in Ansaldo Sistemi. Since 2007 Francesco has also served as Managing Director of the Systems Business of Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari. He was appointed Chief Trasportation Systems Unit Italy of Ansaldo STS in January 2009.

Vivian Fernandes is Economic Policy Editor with CNBC-TV18. He has been with the company, owning the channel, for 15 years. Vivian has been a keen observer of politics and business ever since India liberalised its economy in the early 1990s. He has reported and commented extensively on India's economic policies and has covered the ministries, corporates and Parliament. Before shifting to TV journalism, Vivian worked with India Today, Hindustan Times and Business and Political Observer.

Born in 1953, Jean-Marc Janaillac is a graduate of the HEC (College of Advanced Commercial Studies) (1975) and a former alumnus of the ENA (1980). After starting his career as a Chief of Staff in the Prefecture, he worked as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State for Tourism (1983-1984). He subsequently held the post of general manager of French official tourism services for North America in New York, from 1984 to 1987. At the end of that posting, he was appointed Director General of the Maison de la France (1987-1997), an economic interest grouping that handles the promotion of French tourism abroad. In that capacity, he was a member of the Air France board from 1989 to 1994. In 1997, Jean-Marc Janaillac joined the AOM airline as Executive Director of Sales before being appointed acting Director General two years later. He joined the Maeva Group as CEO in 2000 before being appointed to the Chair of the Paris Tourism and Conference Board in 2002. He has been serving as the RATP Group’s Managing Director for Development and as CEO of RATP Développement since November 2004.

Shri R.N. Joshi is presently working as Director (Finance) in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. He has more than three and half decades experience of Financial Management in various Public Sector Undertakings. Shri Joshi is a commerce graduate from Delhi University and is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants and Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He was also sponsored by the Government of India for course on “Advanced Financial Management Techniques for Public Enterprises” at Strathclyde Graduate Business School,U.K. Shri Joshi is active in academic pursuits as well. He has authored a book titled “Cash Management: Perspectives, Principles & Practices”. It has been widely acclaimed as the only book of its kind available in India, which covers all the facets of Cash Management. He is also associated with finance and audit related research activities with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is a subject speaker in various seminars and international training programmes.

Anil Kumar is the Vice President of Mechanical and Electric Systems at Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of Reliance-ADA Group of India and Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles, S.A. (CAF) of Spain. He is working with Reliance ADA Group since August 2006 on implementation of Mumbai Metro Line 1 and Delhi Airport Express Rail Link projects.

His earlier assignments include Project Manager at Central Organization of Railway Electrification (CORE), Indian Railways in 2006 and Additional General Manager for Delhi Metro Rail Phase-1 Project at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation from 1998 to 2006. He has also held various positions up to Depot Manager (Rolling Stock) at Indian Railways.

He has 19 years of experience in handling high speed railway and metro projects, managing rolling stock depot of an operating railway, and MRTS project implementation from concept to commissioning. His key experience includes rolling stock, railway electrification, building E&M works, tunnel ventilation systems, HVAC and automatic fare collection, rail systems integration and interface management.

Anil has a Masters in Business Administration and a PG Diploma in Operations Management. He graduated with a B. Tech (Electrical) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. Currently, he is a member of International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Belgium, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA, Institute of Urban Transport (IUT), India, and Institute of Railway Electrical Engineers (IREE), India.

Mr. Raj Kumar has been associated with Railway Signalling Engineering since 1975. After graduation in Engineering, he completed his Master’s in Electrical Engineering in 1972 and subsequently M.Phil in Public Administration.

His has worked extensively in the field of ‘Signalling & Train Control’. He has worked for 23 years in Indian Railways and has been associated with introduction of frontline technologies including CTC and Train Describer. He has also been associated with Railway Telecommunication and has worked in field of Microwave, UHF and Train Radio.

He had been associated as ‘Signalling & Train Control’ expert during the period 1995 to 1998 with Malaysian Railways for introduction of commuter services in Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Railways.

He has been working in Delhi Metro Rail since August 1998 and pioneered & spearheaded introduction of ATP/ATO/ATS in ‘Signalling & Train Control’ and ‘Train Radio (TETRA Systems)’. Delhi Metro has been amongest first to use Tetra system. He also pioneered introduction of totally contactless technology in Fare Collection system both for store value card as well single journey token for the first time in the world.

Presently as Director (Operations) he is in charge of operations and maintenance of 72 km of Delhi Metro Rail and in addition to project activities of Phase-II in the area of Signalling & Train Control, Telecommunication and Automatic Fare Collection systems.

Joffrey Lauthier's area of expertise is focused on control centres and signalling solutions for urban rail transit. He has been delivering projects for metros and light rail transit systems in the United States, Canada, India and Singapore for more than 10 years.

Joffrey's career started in the United States where he held engineering positions with several rail control systems suppliers. After joining Alstom Transport, he was involved in the commissioning of the first two lines of Delhi metro. Joffrey then moved to Paris, where he managed projects and tenders related to driverless metro signalling. He is now based in Singapore and is responsible for developing Alstom’s signalling and telecom activities in Asia-Pacific.

Joffrey graduated from a French engineering school and holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a member of the Project Management Institute and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association.

Gulshan Rai Madan graduated from University of Roorkee (Now IIT/Roorkee) in 1962 and joined the prestigious Indian Railway Service of Engineers in 1963. After over 38 years of service, he retired in 2002 as General Manager. Prior to that he held the post of General Manager/Metro Railway/Kolkata the first Metro in India for over 2 years. During his long carrier with Indian Railways, he held many important assignments like Principal Chief Engineer, Chief Bridge Engineer, Professor/Bridges, Divisional Railway Manager, Chief Engineer/Metropolitan Transport Project (Railways) Mumbai as in-charge of Mankhurd-Belapur new rail link to Navi Mumbai including 2 Km. long Thane Creek Bridge. He thus acquired vast experience in planning, design, construction and management of rail based transport infrastructure including Urban Transport Systems.

After his retirement he worked as Officer-on-Special Duty/MRTS with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation for one year. From July, 2004, he has been working as Director/MRTS/Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority looking after Mumbai Metro Rail Project. The implementation of Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Corridor of Mumbai Metro on PPP format is being done for the first time in India. The 2nd Corridor is now in advanced stage of Bidding.

Mr. Surjit S. Madan is currently the Vice President/Head-Rolling Stock in Mumbai Metro One Private Limited.

He is an Electrical Engineer & Rolling Stock Specialist having more than 35 years of experience. His experience includes the Design of Locomotives, Locomotive Simulator, DC Traction Motors, Special purpose DC Motors, Traction Control equipment, System Engineering for DC & AC Drives, Testing and Failure Analysis of Rolling Stock. His designed Traction Motors, Locomotives and other equipment are working in India & abroad.

As a Project Manager, he established the ‘Centre for Electric Transportation’, a Research & Development Centre for Rolling Stock at Bhopal unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, India, under the United Nations Development Program. He was also responsible for design, manufacture, erection & commissioning of Locomotive Simulator and other facilities in the Centre.

He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India). For his outstanding achievements, his biography was included in 1997 Edition of American publication Marquis ‘Who’s Who in the World’.

ANOUJ MEHTA is the acting ADB nodal officer for its PPP activities in India and Senior Infrastructure Finance Specialist.

An ex-investment banker, MBA (INSEAD, France) and Chartered Accountant (ICAEW, UK) he is currently based in New Delhi on posting from the head office in Manila, Philippines.

As focal point for the mainstreaming of Public Private Partnership’s (PPP’s) in India, Anouj is working closely with the Government of India and several State governments across the country in developing a host of PPP initiatives including development of PPP Cells across the country, government capacity building, sector policy development, bankability structuring for non recourse financing, and project pipeline development across the country. Focus sectors include transport, urban water supply, social sectors, energy and rural development.

Prior to focusing on India PPP mainstreaming efforts, at ADB, Anouj focused on project structuring for fund raising as well as institutional reforms implementation across various countries and sectors. Projects have included urban water supply, ports, transport sector projects in China, India, Vietnam, Maldives, Indonesia, amongst others. Policy work has included development of ADB's sustainable water program for Asia through the Water Financing Program.

Prior to joining ADB, Anouj worked as an investment banker in the UK (London) including Asia coverage (Singapore, Hong Kong, India and South Asia) for over 12 years, advising multi-national corporations and governments on a range of issues including mergers and acquisitions, corporate & project finance, capital markets, new market entry strategies, joint venturing, policy and sector reform, private equity and privatization.

Since June 2007, D.D. Pahuja has been the Director (RSE) of BMRCL. He is responsible for the review of specifications preparation of tender documents, evaluation of technical and financial bids and the award of contracts in respect to rolling stock, electric traction, signaling & telecommunication, automatic fare collection system and other system tenders. He is also in charge of reviewing depot layouts and machinery, plants and others, for maintenance of trains. He was Chief Electrical Engineer with Delhi Metro Rail Project – Phase 1, from 1997 – 2005.

As an engineer for over 3 decades, his extensive experience includes: preparation of specification, design review, testing commissioning and trails of rolling stock for Delhi Metro; design, lay-out of depot cum workshop including selection of machinery & plant for maintenance and repairs of Metro Rolling Stock; tunnel ventilation & ECS System of underground corridor of Delhi Metro; study of traction systems applicable by Mass Rapid Transit System; maintenance of electric rolling stock, traction and distribution installations, air conditioning and electrical general services on Indian Railways; and 25 KV AC, Traction System.

Amrit Pandurangi is Executive Director in PwC Delhi office. He has over 30 years of experience in the Infrastructure sector advisory. He sits on various industry committees (such as CII, FICCI, etc) dealing with regulation and infrastructure development.

Amrit has worked in the sphere of PPP and infrastructure sectors in the UK, Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore) and Africa (Kenya, Ghana).

Amrit has been involved in over 80 PPP transactions across various sectors, including many first of their kind PPP projects in India. He has advised on transactions in Rail, Roads, Airports, Ports, Water and Oil & Gas. His clients include national level agencies such as Min of Railways, MMRDA, RVNL, NHAI, AAI, etc. apart from a number of global private infrastructure corporates.

Mr Prakasam has degrees in Science (Statistics) and Engineering (Electrical). He was with the Singapore Airlines for 10 years, working in various departments involved in technical support and development work, before joining the Mass Rapid Transit Corporation in 1983. There, he was involved in the building of the first rapid transit system for Singapore.

Since 1989, he has been involved in ticketing systems and several initiatives, the first of which was the Integrated Ticketing System which provided a common fare structure for the entire public transport network.

In 1994, he spearheaded trials on the Contactless Smart Card and launched the Enhanced Integrated Fare System project for the public transport system in 1998. Mr Prakasam was the Project Director for this project which implemented a common smart card system across the public transport network at a total cost of US$200m in 2002. To date, 10 million cards have been issued.

He is now leading a team to replace the current system with a new open system which will merge the payment infrastructure for Public Transport and congestion pricing. For this purpose new standard specification based on microprocessor cards called CEPAS was developed in partnership with leading card suppliers. The system was launched successfully in January 2009.The total current card base of 15 million memory cards will be progressively replaced by Type B microprocessor cards by October 2009.

He is also actively involved in various National Committees in the promotion of e-payments and related standards.

Co-founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ITNL ENSO Rail Systems Pvt. Ltd (IERS), Sanjiv Rai has worked in the infrastructure business for the past 20 years in several leading roles. He has worked on three continents, namely, in the Americas, Europe and Asia with ABB, Alstom, Motorola and Bombardier. He has been a part of several successful power, communication and rail projects in the U.S., Malaysia, China, India, Korea and Taiwan. He has extensive experience in Finance, Operations, and Marketing.

In late 2007, he relocated to India to co-found IERS with two leading institutions, namely ITNL (a subsidiary of IL&FS) and Enso Group. IERS, head quartered in New-Delhi, will focus on Development, Financing and Operations of mass transit rail systems globally.

Mr. Rai is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and has received senior management training at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerand.

N. Rajashekaran assumed the role of Country Business Manager of Citi India’s Global Consumer Group in June 2008. Shekar’s mandate in this role is to continue to realize the long-term potential of Citi as the premier consumer banking franchise in India, which is a priority country in Citi’s global plans. Prior to this, Shekar headed various key portfolios in Citi’s Japan and Korea franchises. As Senior Executive Vice President of Citibank Korea Inc., Shekar held the position of Chief Risk Officer overseeing credit and market risk management functions for the entire Citibank Korea portfolio. In both Japan and Korea, Shekar played a key role in developing business momentum amidst challenging market environments through robust risk management platforms and efficient processes. One of his key personal priorities in these two tenures was to nurture and develop talent and improve employee satisfaction through a wide range of initiatives that transcended cultural and language barriers.

A seasoned banker with global experience in Corporate Banking, Risk, Treasury and Business Management, Shekar joined Citi over 8 years ago as Country Risk Director of the Global Consumer Group, based out of Mumbai. He began his career with Bank of America in 1985. Here, he was part of the team that built the consumer banking portfolio for the bank in India. In 1999, Shekar moved on to integrate this portfolio with ABN Amro as Consumer Banking Head.

Growing up in Delhi, Shekar obtained his B.E. (Mech.) from Delhi College of Engineering and his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Shekar returned to India from Korea in 2008 and is based in Delhi. He is married and has two sons. He is an avid reader and particularly enjoys reading military historical fiction.

Dr. M.Ramachandran is a senior civil servant whose wide experience includes working in the field as well at senior policy making levels in State Governments and at the Centre. He has an M.Phil. in Economic Planning from the University of Glasgow and Phd in Project Planning. Dr. Ramachandran is currently posted as Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Urban Development

In the early stages of his career, he has worked as Collector and District Magistrate of two districts in Uttar Pradesh. He has been Divisional Commissioner of 3 Divisions and has served as Secretary and Principal Secretary to the State Government. He has worked as Joint Secretary to Government of India, Additional Chief Secretary and Infrastructure Development Commissioner in the State and in recent appointments, he has served as Chief Secretary of the State of Uttarakhand. He was mainly responsible for structuring the Leather and Jute sector programs for India when he was working with the UNDP. His painstaking efforts and dynamic leadership role in putting together an infrastructure vision for the newly created state of Uttarakhand and the wide variety of initiatives he took to charter the course of infrastructure development for the state during 2003-06 naturally earned him the title of ‘Infrastructure Man’.

Dr. Ramachandran’s wealth of experience also comes from his terms on the boards of directors of central and state PSUs, Authorities, Port Trusts, Stock Exchange etc. and also from being the chairperson of Metro Corporations and Development Authorities.

Marcus Reuss is one of the shareholders of the family owned Bock company and responsible for all rolling stock applications of HVAC compressors worldwide. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering in Design and Refrigeration and an MBA in International Management. After several years working in global automobile supplier companies in the field of combustion engines and compressors, he joined Bock in 2006 and started the initiative that Bock customised compressors to the needs of the Railway and Metro business. To contribute to more sustainability in his sector is one of his personal life-tasks.

Piero Sartore is a chartered architect with 23 years experience, out of which 16 on Construction sites located in different countries, including Kenya, Colombia, U.S.A. and Italy. He worked on a wide variety of projects, including buildings, water management systems, dams, motorways, railways and ultimately, metro. His responsibilities included design, site management, project engineering and project management. Since 2006 he is Project Manager for the design and construction of the civil works for the Turin Metro, in Italy.

He has a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi, and a Post-Graduate Degree in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He has another Masters' Degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing countries from the London School of Economics. He joined the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) in the year 1984, as a Probationary Officer. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in the year 1985 and was allotted Karnataka Cadre.

He has served as Assistant Commissioner and Sub-Divisional Magistrate in the Sub-Divisions of Jamkhandi in Bagalkot Dist. (erstwhile Bijapur District) and at Kumta in Uttara Kannada District. He has served as Deputy Secretary to the Government of Karnataka in the Departments of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries & Forests, Education and Commerce & Industries Departments. He served as Deputy Commissioner in Hassan District. He has served the Govt. of India as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. In the Super time scale of the Indian Administrative Service, he has served the Government of Karnataka as Managing Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation, Bangalore, Secretary, Department of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj and Karnataka State Beverages Corporation Ltd.

He brings to this job considerable experience of working as part of many teams in managing a wide variety of Projects and Programs.

T.V. Somanathan holds a Ph.D in Economics from Calcutta University, Master of Arts (MA) in Economics and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Honours degrees from Panjab University, and has completed the Executive Development Program of Harvard Business School. He is a fully qualified chartered accounting/corporate secretarial professional–Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, London, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, London, and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, London, Associate of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants and Institute of Company Secretaries of India and a recipient of a number of academic awards from these institutions.

He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1987 (ranked 2nd All India) and was awarded the Gold Medal for the Best IAS Probationer of his batch.

He has worked in a variety of positions in the Government of Tamil Nadu including Deputy Secretary (Finance), Executive Director, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board, Joint Vigilance Commissioner, Commissioner for Disciplinary Proceedings, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project and Secretary, Planning & Development. In 1996 he joined the World Bank, Washington through the Young Professionals Program, and was in charge of infrastructure projects and financial management in the East Asia & Pacific Regional Vice Presidency. In 2000, he became one of the Bank’s youngest Sector Managers when he was appointed Manager of the Budget Policy Group. In 2001 he returned to the IAS, in Tamil Nadu.

He is currently Secretary to the Chief Minister (Monitoring), Secretary to Government, Special Initiatives and Managing Director, Chennai Metro Rail Limited. He has been in charge of the Chennai Metro Rail Project since December 2006.

He has published over 80 papers and articles in journals and newspapers on economics, finance and public policy, and is a regular Visiting Faculty member at several institutions. He is the author of a book on Derivatives (Tata McGraw Hill – 1998), and of chapters in Land Reforms in India (M. Thangaraj [ed.] Sage Publications–2003) and Public Institutions in India (Pratap Mehta & Devesh Kapur [eds.] Oxford University Press–2005).

Dr. E. Sreedharan is an eminent civil engineer belonging to the elite Indian Railway Service of Engineers. After a distinguished career spanning 36 years on the Indian Railways, he retired in 1990 as Member Engineering from Railway Board as ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India. Having successfully executed many railway projects including new railway construction, doubling projects, tunnels and bridges, he was specially chosen to head the 760 kms. long prestigious Konkan Railway Project from Mumbai to Mangalore which he completed within an incredibly short period of 7 years, in spite of the very difficult resource crunch during the period and the very unfriendly mountainous terrains.

The successful completion of Konkan Railway prompted the State Government of Delhi and the Government of India to entrust him with the major urban mass transit system for Delhi, the capital city of the country. Such a major urban intervention had never been attempted after independence of the country in 1947. The construction of phase-I having started in October, 1998, the first phase of Delhi Metro became operational stage by stage from 2002 and fully operational, by 2005. From day one, Delhi Metro has been making operational profits. The work on second phase of the project, covering about 120 kms. including a high speed Express Airport Link, to be commissioned by middle of 2010 before the Commonwealth Games has also been started and is well under way.

Following the success of Delhi Metro, Dr. Sreedharan has been spearheading efforts to provide Metro systems in other State capitals. In the process, metros have been planned for Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Kochi. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is involved in these projects as Interim Consultant or Prime Consultant.

Dr. Sreedharan is a recipient of many prestigious awards from the Government and professional bodies in India and abroad. Times of India adjudged him as the “Man of the Year” in 2002. The TIME MAGAZINE chose him as one of the ASIAN HEROES in 2003. The President of French Republic awarded him “Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 2005. He was named one of the “top 25 newsmakers of 2005” by US’s premier publication on construction industry “Engineering News Record”. He was awarded “The Person of The Year” by the India Vision News Channel in 2006. He was given "Man of the Year Award – Public Service" and "Indian of the Year Award" – from CNN – IBN for 2007. He was awarded the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics & Management 2008 by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi. Received "Life Time Contribution Award in Engineering" for the year 2008 by Indian National Academy of Engineering. Nominated for "Policy Change Agent Award" from Economic Times in 2008. He was presented First National Award by Lala Diwan Chand Trust on 14.2.2009.

He was awarded “Padma Shri” in 2001 and "Padma Vibhushan" 2008. He was awarded the Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Science” by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2005. Kurukshetra University, Haryana awarded him the Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Science” in 2006. Rajasthan Technical University awarded him the Honoris Causa "Doctor of Letters" in 2009. In addition a number of foundations and professional bodies had awarded him at regular intervals.

Joined Indian Administrative service (Karnataka Cadre) in 1977. At present, holding the post of Principal Secretary to Government, Urban Development Department. Prior to this, worked as Secretary / Principal Secretary, Transport Department; Revenue Department; Health & Family Welfare Department; Social Welfare Department; Medical Education Department, Government of Karnataka and Director, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India.

Shri V. N. Tripathi has taken over the charge of General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata on 29th December, 2008. Shri Tripathi joined the Indian Railway Traffic Service on 2-12-1974. He is an M. Sc. In Mathematics from the University of Allahabad.

Prior to joining as GM of Metro Railway, Kolkata, Shri Tripathi was Chief Operations Manager, West Central Railway at Jabalpur.

During his distinguished career Shri Tripathi held various important positions as ADRM/CST (Mumbai), Central Railway and Divisional Railway Manager, Waltair, East Coast Railway. He also held key Zonal Railway positions such as CFTM (Chief Freight Traffic Manager) and SDGM in Central Railway.

He has visited several foreign countries like USA, UK, Austria, France and Germany to study their Railway systems.