Sourajit Mukherjee is a source of inspiration to an innumerable number of youth who want to succeed in their career and find an identity in the professional world after their education and learning. An engineering graduate and a post-graduate in business administration, Sourajit today is leading one of the fastest-growing railway infrastructure companies in India, e2E rail, as its Chief Executive Officer.
Sourajit, while talking to our Managing Editor Mr. Narendra Shah explicitly shared his views on various issues related to Urban Transport system in India, MRTS, Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan with an unambiguous and insightful view on the policies and plans of the present government towards growth and development of transport system in the country and strengthening the infrastructure.
The young technocrat has also been one of the key speakers in virtual tech forum InnoMetro – 2021 for a global discussion on MRTS, Urban Transport and tech Industry held by Symbroj Media Pvt. Ltd.
Below are the excerpts of the interview :
Q.1 (NS): At a young age, you have been on a number of important positions in different organizations of repute. How does it feel to be the CEO of e2E Rail?
Ans (SM): We are going through extremely unprecedented times. The world has turned upside down right now. Still, we are carrying on, each one of us are trying our best to keep the ball rolling, the industry is helping, the entire government machinery, and all of us are also trying to support.
However even during this challenging times, I appreciate the endeavour and the hard work done by your team in delivering positive and industrious news about the railway fraternity, assembling the stakeholders in such a wonderful forum like Inno Metro , and carrying out the railway journalism which can work as great perception building for railway industry across the masses.
So, coming back to your question about being the CEO of e2E Rail, I shall be frank to mention that designations or titles hardly matters to me. Since the day I started working till now, I always tried to believe that wherever I am working, I actually own that company. I always try to feel that whatever I am part of, I own that thing, I am part of that system, everything belongs to me as a person. Whatever happens, profit or loss, reputation or bad name, if I don’t feel that it is my own. I cannot succeed in that assignment. So be it an engineer, be a sales guy, marketing guy, a guy who is working at the back office or a designer or a CEO, the key thing is to be completely involved with the entity you are working for.
As far as e2E rail is concerned, we are a great team. I am just a team member. But on a candid note, it is not only a team; it’s a family for me. We have more than almost four hundred employees right now and another four hundred will be on a subcontractor basis. It’s a pretty large e2E Rail family, and it’s a huge privilege and honour that I have been given the opportunity to lead this fantastic team.
Q.2. (NS): What are your immediate plans and goals for your current organization towards its growth and development in a lead role?
Ans. (SM) e2E Rail is one of the fastest-growing railway infrastructure companies in India. We have grown through almost more than fifty percent CAGR over the last four years, and the same did not reduce even during first wave of pandemic. We have registered a growth rate of more than forty percent on revenue and the profitability have doubled with EBITDA figures touching at 15%.
It has been a continuous and sustainable growth rate on the backdrop of an impeccable execution record and strong order book. Our vision is to be the preferred end to end engineering and construction service provider for the railway infra projects in India. We look at a horizon of 2025 to take the company to a 800 to1000 crore level. In this journey we are contemplating expansion on horizontal as well as vertical scales of operation. This can contribute to the generation of an enormous number of opportunities for young professionals and generate significant employment opportunities. In this process we contribute towards nation-building and the concept of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.
Railways being the backbone of this nation it is imperative that a company like us when we are aiming for growth we aim towards a long term and sustainable growth and just not be myopic in our strategies. That’s why we have been continuously focussing on skill development and training to generate quality workforce.
Q.3. (NS): As we all know, e2E is one of the reputed certified organization providing rail engineering expertise to rail infrastructure projects for mainline and mass transit systems in India and abroad. Which key projects undertaken by e2E would you like to highlight as major accomplishments bringing about significant change in the public transportation system in India and abroad?
Ans. (SM): In one of our Marketing banners we use a tagline which says that e2E Rail is everywhere. In Indian rail industry, if you go to any metros, any zonal railways across India, or even in the south-east asian countries in few places, there are hardly any say railway system where e2E rail have not contributed in some capacity.
Over the last eleven years of its existence, we have always been associated with most of the railway systems right now working in India either through focused engineering & design services, operations & maintenance vertical or through the direct tuenkey and EPC contracts which we take up on our own or as a partner of the OEMs. And when I talk about, I talk about mass transit as well as the mainline, plus we have always been extremely focused company towards infra development of the private railway yards and contribute towards the last mile connectivity.
We always felt that development on the freight transportation and the connectivity to the private yards are equally important as developing the passenger transportation routes. . It gives the right impetus towards the overall rail infrastructure growth and it provides the right impetus to increase the share of rail in the overall freight transport in India. Railway provides the cleanest, fastest and cheapest way of transporting freight compared to the other medium of transport but have still only 27% share currently. So, there is a huge scope of development in this area.
For example, we now all can realise the importance for commencement of the RORO services. If this service were not in place, we could not have got the oxygen express moving at such ease and emergency basis. Also, the medical equipment and essential commodities which are being now moved through the new dfcc corridor are helping the entire process at the time of pandemic.
e2E rail has always been present across the railway value chain and one of the most prominent works. I should say achievements for us were on the Signalling technology vertical where we have been the partner for implementing the first CBTC signalling system India for Hyderabad Metro.
We have been the partner with Thales from design to testing, commissioning, installation for the entire six phases of Hyderabad metro. We had a huge team just focused on this project. It has been a huge learning experience for our team and has been one of the most interesting projects we have ever taken up. This was a flagship project which led the way to adopt this technology for other metros in India. Right now, if you see, most of the Metros have adopted this technology and are being successfully running in all major metros. We are also working with the Nagpur metro, using the same CBTC signalling system for Siemens.
e2E rail is ready to contribute in all the upcoming railway systems, from high-speed rail to the NCRTC.
You can say that we are a complete end-to-end rail infra solution provider across verticals with high-quality engineering services for the rail industry.
Q.4. (NS: How do you see the future of urban transportation and MRTS in India, and what, according to you, should be immediate changes required in the public transport system in India?
Ans. (SM): That’s a huge policy question, and that’s a very important and pertinent question at this point of time, where we are talking about reducing carbon footprint, we’re talking about reducing the number of cars, we are talking about people moving much more seamlessly, much more in a faster pace and in a much safer way. So, that is the objective.
We go by rail; we go by car, go by bus, and go by anything. The result is that we should reach safely to our destination at the fastest time and the least amount of pollution without harming nature. We need to live without hurting nature, without destroying the environment; we involve the least possible resources that could harm our ecosystem. Today, the situations we have come in today are the aftereffect of all the wrong things we have done, and we can understand how nature is hitting back to us ruthless way.
So, saying about the urban transportation where more than half the 138 Cr population of the country rushes every day to cities and wants a fast and reliable mode of transport, the need of the hour is obviously developing a seamless and integrated transport system.
As more and more of the places getting urbanized, with industrial clusters coming up across geographies, it is absolutely pertinent right now to increase the connectivity without inflicting any further damage to the environment.
For me, the answer to this is developing a seamless multimodal urban transport connectivity. For example, today I stay in a place called Yelahanka of North Bangalore and if I want to go to a place near Indira Nagar, the nearest metro to me is at Jalahalli. That’s around seven-eight kilometres from where I am staying. So, to reach over there, either have to take my own vehicle or use a cab or auto. Then after parking the vehicle, I have to board the metro, get down at Indira Nagar metro station and again take a cab or an auto and go over to my actual destination.
However, if I don’t want take that headache of switching four modes of transport along with the waiting time for each and also the hassle of getting tickets for each, I can also take my own vehicle and drive directly to my destination, however due to the traffic congestion it might take me more time, but as a common man the pain of going through availing 4 modes of service and their associated process is just too much hazard for me. However, if there was a complete seamless multimodal transport system with a single pass and last-mile connectivity, the chances of availing those public transport services increases significantly. This kind of developing a seamless connectivity requires inclusive planning which cannot happen by silo basis working by individual department of railways, metro or Bus MRTS systems.
Every developed country and now also most of the developing countries already adopted this multimodal transportation model, and that is how we have to aim.
That’s the future of urban transportation. If the policymakers can sit down together and reframe the policies to achieve this as a single objective, it can pave the way towards a revolution in urban transport in India. The NITI Aayog and the urban development ministry need to think more on these terms to give a seamless experience to the passenger; otherwise, it’s difficult to divert people to move away from the private and use public transport as their preferred medium. And obviously if people won’t go, the ridership won’t increase, and the commercial viability shall fade.
Classic example is Mumbai Monorail which had extremely limited connectivity and access modes were also inadequate, hence the public also refrained from using the service. But the local trains at the same time were overflooded. Why because the planning towards the monorail system has been not so great which includes the entire phase of the communication or the transportation medium and not exclusive to that mode.
Q.5. (NS): Are you satisfied with the plans and policies of the government presently in terms of its commitment to develop public transport system?
Ans. (SM): I must say that the existing policies are a huge leap forward towards high quantum growth. Yes, the results can’t be achieved immediately but the intention and the objective are positive and based on long term vision. But said that we also need to consider that policies may be attractive however if there are gaps in practical plan for implementation, the overall objective shall get delayed or not achieved in its eniriety.
I have no complaints with the government as I believe they are immensely positive towards developing transportation systems and giving significant impetus to railways which is still the safest and least polluted mode of transport.
However, I believe the pace and the planning for implementation need to improve. It’s completely a personal opinion.
Q.6. (NS) What, according to you, had been the failure and drawbacks in Indian Transportation System in last many years? If according to you, there has been any negligence or lacuna in part?
Ans. (SM)See India is an enormous country; the infrastructure growth we have seen over the last few years has been extraordinary. Last year, more than seven thousand kilometres were electrified on the mainline itself, which is a huge achievement compared to our progress over the last few years. It is not easy. There are many hardships, there are wins but at the same time there shall be occasional failures. Being a part of this rail industry for the last ten years or more than a decade, I completely understand the challenges and are more than in sync with the effort to cross the hurdles. During my involvement with the rail industry, I have come across many events which might have been avoided or done differently but the practicality is too tough. Its easy to point out delays or failures but providing solution to those is the real challenge. For example, one can say that DFCC could have been finished much faster. But there were practical limitations, practical challenges. Lands were not getting acquired, there were challenges in the procurement of materials, there were so many odds the entire fraternity were working day and night to solve. It is extremely a tough task that the DFCC has achieved. When the DFCC started, I was part of it in some capacity. First time we adopted fully mechanized track laying process where a two-kilometre track was being laid in eight hours of time which was unheard earlier, but that also happened in real. There are hundreds of events like this that have been happening over the last seven to eight years, which has changed how we had been working and changed the conventions. Still, there is a huge scope of improvement, and I am a part of the system, part of that endeavour towards improving that system where things can go much faster and much in a smoother way rather than earlier.
For example, I can say that the last mile connectivity towards the ports, the development of the freight yards, private freight terminals, needs much more focus. The National Rail Plan, if you go through it, gives a huge impetus to this subject. It’s completely in the right direction we are going. The only area of improvement that I feel is that the planning to execution conversion needs to be a little faster and that the people who are the implementing agencies need to look at a holistic approach rather than only going by the conventional employer contractor kind of a relationship while implementing the projects.
We need to start building a partnership kind of an environment to boost up the stakeholders. When I was working in the US we had a partnership with union pacific railways where all the contractors used to sit with the implementing agency and form a common project team to execute the work. However what I have seen over the years in India is the gap and discrimination between the employer, implementing agency, and the execution guys and all work in silos and busy in safeguarding their scope of work which results in conflicts and delays eventually.
I really feel that if we want to increase our pace, we need to have much more the transparency on the tendering and contract management process right from the top; the way the contracts are made in India needs refinement. It needs to give independence to the contractor to implement better technologies and better work methodologies rather than compelling them to work as per book. Results should matter rather than our conventions which may be outdated.
But in this area also, there has been considerable progress by the Railway authorities and govt implementing agencies. We have recently seen that the tenders are changing from a silo-based model towards an EPC platform. This marks a huge leap forward towards how the tenders are being done and the contracts are being executed. However, we also need to consider that this should not lead to a monopolistic situation where only few large enterprises are eligible, and the smaller players shall just perish.
The small and medium enterprises are fighting every day and day out and has been significantly contributing to the GDP. We must frame policies that can provide a level playing field for all the stakeholders and foster an environment of healthy and quality competition. This shall result in better productivity and being about quality development.
Q.7. (NS): What is your opinion about the ‘Make in India’ initiative and the ‘Atmnirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’? Do you see these initiatives bringing about any significant change?
Ans. (SM): As per me this is the single most important step which this govt have brought in. Even if there are a lot of people who questions the effecicacy of the policy due to a sluggish start, however as a railway professional, as an engineer, as a part of the industry, I feel that’s the best thing which have been done in the recent years where we have the opportunity to become a manufacturing giant in the same line with China.,
There is no way that with so much skill, so many resources present in India, why we cannot do that? We can match anybody at any point in the world. I’m telling you the Make in India policy is going to change how the world looks at India. It’s how we shall be sitting at alongside the best manufacturing nations in the world.
Have you seen how fast India adapted to developing the PPE Kits when the COVID stuck?
There are companies that have changed overnight and started manufacturing. There is no dearth of talent over here, there are no dearth of resources over here, just the policy push and a little bit of support from the government, we are going to fly, and we are going to show the world how best quality things can be achieved with the most optimum level of price.
I am all in with the Make in India campaign. From our organisation perspective, we have serious plans going forward towards contributing to the Make in India model by supporting or partnering innovations and developing state of the art products for the rail industry.
Q8. (NS): e2E has a very strong team of board of directors. As the CEO of the organization what help and support you get from other senior members of the organization in decision making and other day to day activities?
Ans. (SM): It’s a very interesting question. Somebody after a long time asked me about my board of directors which feels great. I am really proud to be part of e2E Rail team and representing the board for day-to-day activities. We are a corporate entity with a professional board of directors who have guided this company over the last 10 years towards exemplary growth and sustainability.
I thank each one of them for showing us the path and steering this company to this level from where it can scale up exponentially in the coming years.
I believe they will keep supporting us. I am extremely honoured that they have given me this opportunity to lead this team.
I would obviously like to mention the name of Mr. Abhijeet Kudva, who has been my mentor and has been the representative of the board who believed in our abilities all through and played a significant role in bringing the company to this juncture where it can move from hundred crores to eight hundred crores in the coming five years. Also, I must mention the man behind the financial stability of our company, our CFO and my best buddy Mr Suresh Maddali who held the fort together in the toughest of the times and sailed us through with his impeccable and meticulous planning and financial control.
This is a wonderful company with a blend of experience and youth. Our average age of this company is thirty-one, which is like you can understand that is very young company. A lot of energy, a lot of exuberance comes with a blend of highly experienced professionals who guide the young team, encourage them, train them, and prepare them to handle all sorts of challenges. This is what makes us unique and make us the fastest growing rail infra company in India.
Q.9. (NS): You have an engineering background with expertise in Marketing-Sales and Business Law. In what ways a diverse academic knowledge has helped you in your professional career? What challenges have you faced in your journey so far, and how did you overcome it?
Ans. (SM): Pretty fascinating question; this takes me back to my college days. So, in India, the education system is very interesting. You never know where you will land up to and what you will do in the final years.
So, anyway, when I gave my entrance examination in engineering, I really didn’t know which stream I should go to. My acquaintances always told me that electronics and communications were supposed to be the best stream for getting a job easily. So, I took it, and hence the journey started.
I was always a little business-oriented guy rather than academic. I was not a good student anyways and kind of average types. I was never a brilliant, first-grade student. My marks have never been more than seventy-five percent ever in my entire career.
So, once I scored eighty-five, and I was surprised, I thought people would take back my paper and see again that no, its not eighty-five its seventy-five. Anyways, so that’s how the journey went. The interesting part is, say once you start working, you start to realize how to implement those learning that you have actually done in your academics, how aptly or how skilfully you can utilize those shall decide the extent of your success. It is extremely important to keep practising and learning. For me, it is all about learning continuously, and that’s how it has been till date.
I still feel this is the only way one can remain successful and relevant. In this continuous changing world, rather than being successful it is more important to be relevant and that can happen only by evolving yourself and learning. Continuous, knowledge is the keyword, and if we are going through the knowledge base there are no stopping. I am an Electronics engineer, but I started my work in a mechanical company. I have worked for civil companies, worked for civil components, worked for mechanical components, worked for electrical components, and handled electronic components.
But this has not been very easy or smooth sail always. Whenever you are taking up something new, you need to know that in entirety, you need to get a hold of that subject, you need to learn it the hard way, no shortcuts and that’s how it basically goes. Yes, the various diverse backgrounds helped me to understand business process better. Even when I am leading an organization, I am still a student. I am doing my master’s in business law. I took this challenge only because I want to learn the subject rather than just getting a certificate. Because to lead an engineering and construction organization there are several legal aspects to the business which I felt can better help by getting the know hows from this course which can help to tackle the everyday challenges more accurate way. So, that is how you need to be relevant in this ever-changing world by constantly learning and evolving, and whatever you do how much diverse you are; you always need to start from scratch when you’re studying that, so you need to learn to keep learning.
Q. 10. (NS) : Would you like to speak of any important project or assignment which you had been very closely associated with? What had been the outcome and a reason for a personal affinity?
Ans. (SM) : I’ll share you one project which is straight from my heart. That’s one thing which is the focus for us right now. Skill development in railway engineering is something which I have always felt that there’s a huge scope and can bring about manifold opportunities both for the students and the industry. I strongly feel this is requirement of the hour.
As a railway professional, I have moved across various projects; the maximum challenge what I have seen, our projects are delayed because there is a scarcity of skilled labour or due to faulty engineers who do not have the required skill sets to give quality work. If you closely observe that while completion of any tasks, we come across that there are several snags which needs to be rectified. Why this snag list comes because there is inefficiency being built in the system, there are not enough skilled persons who can finish the work at one go with high precision.
So, skill development is a mission we have taken from e2E will train railway professionals, engineers, technicians, and students who aspires to make a career in rail industry.
I strongly feel that this skill development mission is one of the most key things right now required by the industry and from this interview forum I urge all my fellow, peers and colleagues from the large OEMS and my fellow contractors to invest on this, to invest on learning and development and bring more skilled people in this industry.
Because, when we look at right now, if we have to get skilled people now for any project either we have to poach each others manpower or we have to only look at Indian Railways for retired officers or employees. But, there is a huge-huge quantum of work which the private firms are doing. Where do we get people from then?? There has been an explosion of infrastructure development across the railway verticals, electrification, signalling, track, high speed railway, metros, urban transit…etc etc..name it and its being announced. But are we really giving a thought about who is going to implement that?
You cannot rotate the same people everywhere. One guy goes from here – a to b, b to c, c to d. He is obviously increasing his salary package but ultimately, there is a gap which is being created in the other works. How do you overcome that?
The only process overcoming that is by creating and investing into learning and development. Create more engineers, create more technicians, create more railway professionals who can deliver projects for you, who can deliver the required goods for you, for the industry.
We at e2E Rail have been running an institute called e2E rail village for the last 10 years, which has both online and classroom training and what we do over there in two part. One is obviously we train the fresher engineers and tehcnicans, who want to come into railway profession and the other is for upskilling of existing rail professionals.
We provide training on specific subjects like signalling, electrification or track or rolling stock. We have a small, simulated setup where there is a physical rail yard with a four hundred meter track with all the required equipments where they can have a practical hands on exposure to the real work.
But it is not in the scale of the big large railway institutes which are being run by Indian Railways but it’s an initiative to bridge the gap between the employers and the aspirants. I have appealed the government many times to help us building that on a PPP model to develop this on a much larger scale. However, we are still trying without much success on the Govt front. But, trust me this helps, say a technician, who are required in signalling projects, one normal ITI engineer cannot immediately be a wireman and start doing the wiring for a signalling relay rack. It’s impossible. They need to understand the basics. The railway is a very niche subject. We need to invest on learning and development. Hence this project which we have taken up is just not being run for profitability but rather on developing the talent pool for this industry.
I appeal to everybody, whoever have a requirement, even if, they do not want to invest themselves time and resources, please outsource. There are other institutes also. Please go to them, come to us. But, please invest in getting new professionals in this industry, rather than just focusing on poaching. That’s not how this industry can evolve, if we have to deliver faster. We have to look at that seriously.
We also have started first-time in India a complete self-learning online portal called Swadhyaya, where people can choose the subjects they want to up skill and finish it at their own pace..
Along side our regular work it is imperative that we to upskill ourselves with the latest technologies and also if we want to diversify in our career. Hence this serves as a great platform for all existing professionals looking at career growth.
Please come forward and look at learning and development; otherwise, the plans, the policies, whatever is being made cannot be implemented in the stipulated amount of time. We are at the highest pace right now. We want to deliver fast and deliver best quality. Hence I ask all the people to please again shift their focus not only from just winning a contract rather than developing people, developing the greatest asset which is the people’s mind, nurture new talents and motivate them to get into this industry.
Q.11. (NS) : Which major position, task or organization would you reckon as the most significant in your career?
Ans (SM): My career is not much long. It’s like only 13-14 years now; I have been working. So, the most significant one, if I close my eyes, will always be the first company I worked with, which basically made steel from raw iron. The company’s name is Atlas Copco, where I learnt how business is done, what are the challenges of businesses and how to become a true professional, honest professional with integrity, and even with integrity and honesty how one can be successful.
So, that’s the first organisation where I was selected from the campus remains the closest from the heart. However, the biggest learning is obviously the e2E’s rail journey, where I joined as a head of business development and in four years, we all collectively have taken this company to a sustainable and successful position. So, that journey from business development to lead the team now as the CEO has been a massive learning. I am proud to say that I feel much more enriched today rather than four years back.
Q. 12. (NS) : Would you like to say anything about the job scenario and educational system in our country?
Ans. (SM): I already I think explain a little bit on the earlier question that the demand and supply does not match specifically for our industry if I am talking about as a say, if you can tell me as ambassador of the industry. I can tell you that there’s a huge demand-supply gap right now. With the kind of projects which we are investing and planning to develop as per the National Rail Plan and then compare how many engineers actually get inducted into the rail industry every year, you can notice that there is absolutely no parity. How shall this enormous requirement be met? No one have any idea.
So, if the government or my fellow peers in the private sector do not focus on this, we will not reach our targets or goals in the kind of timelines we have planned for. We do not want to to go back to an era where there is a huge gap in the targeted and achieved timelines for completing the projects. Ideally, it should be like that if the project is targeted to be within three years, it has to be done in two and a half years. That’s how we are right now. We are the new generation. We are the new India where delays are not acceptable. We need to do fast and for that investing in human capital and training them is the most important subject right now.
There is no dearth of jobs. I was actually shocked to hear that 7.5 million people have lost jobs in the last month only, in India. It’s a huge-huge impact of the pandemic which is going on. But, I’m a pretty optimistic guy; I think that this is a storm, this is a tsunami which will pass. It has created a lot of ruckus, created a lot of bad effects in our lives. But, I still believe that the learning which we are getting from this is immense, which we could be reversed if we realise that what are the wrongs we have committed. We will be prepared much better to face the coming days. The job scenario in India is not going anywhere; specifically, in our rail industry, there are huge job opportunities.
I urge the new age guys, the fresh engineers, the fresh professionals who want to make a career. Please come and join the rail industry. It will give you a fantastic career. It has huge opportunities to grow and be the best of yourself.
Q. 13 (NS): What would be your suggestions to youngsters aiming to build a successful career like you?
Ans. (SM): Its not about success in career, its always should be about contribution to the industry we are working and the society we are living. I am happy that I belong to the industry, and I am still relevant in the industry, that is the only success part of .it.
However, to make a decent career, to contribute to the industry and to be what I should say relevant in this industry, we must focus, we must learn, we must invest our time constructively. We should be focused on keep up-skilling ourselves, know the facts and go in depth to what we are pursuing.
There is no short cut to success. We need to learn. We need to fail; otherwise, we will never be able to succeed. But, when I fail, I have to make sure I learn from those mistakes. If we just forget those mistakes. If we are not learning from the failures, it is a problem. Then we cannot succeed ever.
One of my trainers once told me that “when you commit one mistake at a time: it’s a mistake. You commit the same mistake, the next time it becomes a decision”. Because it becomes a choice for you. When you repeat same mistake, you are basically doing a crime; you are not making a mistake. So, be focused. Work hard, there is no shortcut available and keep up-skilling yourself. You will be relevant in this industry. You will be successful, there are opportunities. There is no scarcity of openings. This country is growing at the highest pace compared to the entire world. We have the youngest population in the world. We are going to dominate this era. So, no worries about it, just keep learning. Opportunities will come.
Q.14 (NS): You have recently participated in InnoMetro 2021 as a speaker; how was your experience?
Ans. (SM): It was a very interesting panel discussion on Workforce diversity & technical skills gaps. I thank you for getting us on that panel discussion. We had several eminent personalities, including Chris from Rail personnel and Sunil Srivastava from Barsyl. I was privileged to be part of the panel discussion.
It was an enriching experience of sharing and exchanging our ideas and areas of concerns and also find some solution to the concerns. In fact, I requested Chris to send across the presentation which he shared in the forum. It was a delightful experience, and I really liked how you guys obviously conducted the entire show and also arranged the simulated exhibition set-up.
I was feeling actually part of the exhibition sitting from the safety and comfort of home.
The panel discussion was extremely enriching, and the platform was awesome.
Q.15 (NS) Thank you, thank you so much and the last question of the interview, what is your opinion of Metro Rail News Magazine.
Ans . (SM): I have been a subscriber of this magazine for a pretty long now. My office is a subscriber and we have been using the reports as one of the most trusted medium of information which comes across. It covers most of the verticals and industry on a very thorough note.
The number of topics that are being covered, the people you guys are interviewing, and the notes you guys are putting in are all extremely informative and useful. It does not show anybody in a bad light, but despite that, there is constructive criticism also in lot of editorials
I recommend everybody to use this Metro Rail News Magazine because it is informative and provides correct news about the industry and also helps in the perception building for the rail industry.
