India’s only woman Tunnel Engineer | Fusion - WeRIndia

Meet 35 year old Annie Sinha Roy, she is India’s first and only tunnel engineer. A resident of Bengaluru, she took a huge role in the development of the 4.8 km east-west underground stretch of Namma Metro, between Cubbon Road and Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. It is the first underground metro line in southern India.

Annie hails from a middle class family in North Kolkata. After her mechanical engineering from Nagpur University, she wanted to pursue her masters. However, due to the loss of her father she had to take up a job to support her family. In October 2007, she took a job from Senbo, a contractor with Delhi Metro.

In 2009, she joined Chennai Metro and went to Doha in 2014 for six months. In May 2015, she joined as an assistant engineer in Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC). Being the only woman engineer was not easy.

She says that the first time she entered her workplace, she was surrounded by men who thought she would not last long. There were also problems like having no toilets.

Starting from so many complications, today she says that tunnelling is her life. Every day she spends around eight hours doing her job which she immensely enjoys. In her workplace, she was the only one who steered Godavari, the tunnel boring machine which was used to finish boring underground from Sampige Road to Majestic.

Getting into a male dominated career was not the only stereotype she broke. When she had to go for Doha for a job, her visa application was rejected three times by Qatar because they did not allow unmarried women to go and work there. However, the fourth time, she fought it out with them and managed to get her visa.

Annie wants more women in the country to break stereotypes and work in many more professions.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia