Sri Soma Sundaram Challa was born on 1934, in village Mori, Andhra Pradesh. His high school and intermediate education was at Rajahmundry. He obtained BE (Civil Engineering) Degree from Andhra University (Waltair) in 1955. He served in CPWD during 1955-60 as Section Officer, and in S. E. Railway during 1960-83, in which he rose to the rank of Senior Divisional Engineer. Then, he served in IRCON during 1983-91; he retired from Government Service as General Manager at Ranchi. Thereafter, he served in private organizations from 1991 to 2006 as General Manager in Madhu Constructions Company, Rani Construction Company, RITES, Nagarjuna Construction Company Private Limited, and AARVEE Associates in railway, national highway and rural roads projects.