Know Your Babu: New Chairman Railway Board, VK Yadav

VINOD Kumar Yadav, the General Manager of South Central Railway, is the new Chairman of Railway Board. The appointments cabinet of the committee (ACC) on Monday night accorded its approval for Yadav's appointment in place of Ashwani Lohani who retired yesterday. Here are 10 things you may like to know about the new CRB, VK Yadav:

Know your UPSC Member and ex-Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal

FORMER Railway Board chairman and 1975 batch retired Indian Railway Traffic Service officer Vinay Mittal is the new Member of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). An August 12, 2013 order said the appointment would come into effect from forenoon of August 8, for a period of…

Rail Bhawan is convinced India needs beyond Garib Bullet Trains, but…

INDIAN Railways has so far travelled on a slow track. It has undertaken a long journey from the steam engine era to the modern electric days, but what’s about its speed? Ahead of the Rail Budget, a handful of rail babus worked harder to give IR its first high speed rail system, popularly called bullet trains. But railway minister Pawan Bansal preferred to avoid any…

Vinay Mittal is new chairman, Railway Board

Vinay Mittal, a 1975 batch officer of Indian Railway Traffic Service, is the new chairman, Railway Board and ex-officio principal secretary to the Government of India. Mittal has replaced Vivek Sahai who retired on June 30, 2011. Prior to this appointment, Mittal was serving as General Manager, South Eastern Railway for nearly five months.

Mittal had earlier worked as the General Manager of North Western Railway, Additional General Manager, Central Railway, Divisional Railway Manager-Bilaspur, Chief Passenger Transportation Manager, Chief Freight Transportation Manager, Chief Commercial Manager and Chief Operations Manager of Central Railway and Executive Director, Traffic Transportation (Movement) in Railway Board.

He was a member of the Indian delegation which visited USA and China in 2005-06 in connection with wagon designs and freight operations.

He is credited with improvements in freight loading and punctuality performance in Central Railway and North Western Railway.

Action and Appointments

a) A Jayathilak, a 1991 batch Kerala cadre IAS, presently in the cadre, has been appointed as chairman, Spice Board, Kochi (Kerala) at the joint secretary level.

b) Manoj Kumar, a 1988 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs.

c) Ms Ravneet Kaur, a 1988 batch Punjab cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) at a joint secretary level.

d) Ms Keshni Anand Arora, a 1983 batch Haryana cadre IAS has been appointed as Deputy Director General (joint secretary level) in the regional office of Unique Identification Authority of India at Chandigarh.

VN Tripathi takes over as Member Staff, Railway Board; to hold GM post too

VN Tripathi took over as new Member Staff, Railway Board and ex-officio secretary to government of India on Thursday. Prior to joining as Member Staff, Railway Board, Tripathi has been holding the post of General Manager, Eastern Railway. In addition to his new assignment, he will continue to look after the work of General Manager, Eastern Railway for the time being, a railway ministry release said.

An MSc in mathematics from the University of Allahabad, Tripathi joined the Indian Railway Traffic Services (IRTS) in 1974. Among the important posts that he has held so far, included General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata and Southern Railway, Chennai, Chief Operations Manager of Western Railway, ADRM/CST (Mumbai), Central Railway and Divisional Railway Manager, Waltair, East Coast Railway. He also held key zonal railway positions such as chief freight traffic manager and senior deputy General Manager in Central Railway.

He has visited many countries like USA, UK, Austria, France and Germany to study their railway systems.

Action and Appointments

a) Tourism secretary RH Khwaja, a 1976 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS received PATA Grand Award from the chairman, PATA, Hiran Cooray, at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart 2010, in Macau on September 17, 2010 (See picture) 

b) Anand Kumar, a 1984 batch Kerala cadre IAS, and joint secretary in the ministry of tourism, received PATA Gold Award, at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart 2010, in Macau on September 17, 2010.

Vivek Sahai takes over as chairman, Railway Board

VIVEK Sahai has taken over as the new chairman, Railway Board and ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Railways, in New Delhi on Monday. He replaces SS Khurana who retired on May 31, 2010. For the last five months, Mr Sahai has been holding the post of Member (Traffic), Railway Board.

Mr Sahai who had served as General Manager, Northern Railway took over as Member Traffic in Railway Board in December 2009. He has now been serving as an ex-officio secretary to the government of India.

Mr Sahai, an IRTS officer of 1973 batch, has held several key posts including General Manager, Northern Railway, General Manager North Central Railway, Additional Member Traffic, Railway Board, Chief Operations Manager, Western Railway, Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai, Central Railway, Chief Freight Transportation Manager, Western Railway, Executive Director, Railway Board, New Delhi, Chief Operations Manager, Konkan Railway Corporation Limited. He also has extensive experience in suburban train operations in Mumbai where he had worked as Divisional Railway Manager in Mumbai Division of Central Railway. During his stint as additional General Manager in Western Railway, he also handled the aftermath of serial bomb blasts.

A post graduate degree in physics from Allahabad University, Mr Sahai was trained in US Rail Roads and SNCF (French Railways) under UNDP Project in 1989. He was also part of an Indian delegation which was sent to study the privatization of British Railways in 1996. He also participated in advanced leadership programme held at Stern Business School, New York, USA in 2007.

Great Himalayan Trail: Special offer for civil servants to join trekking this summer

LIKE to venture out to the Himalayas this summer? The Indian government has offered its civil servants a subsidized rate to participate in the National Himalayan Trekking Expedition being organized by Youth Hostels Association of India between April to June, 2010.

The schedule for the trekking are as follows. Saurkundi Pass: April 25 to May 25; Sar Pass: May 1 to May 31 and Kedarkanth: May 1 to May 31, 2010. As the government would subsidize 60% of the participating fee that includes boarding and lodging, the participants need to pay just Rs 1120 for Saurkundi and Sar pass expeditions, and Rs 1280 for the Kedarnath expedition. Significantly, there is a biking expedition too.

If you are interested in participating in the programme, you need to fill up an application form, forward it through your welfare officer, and deposit the requisite amount to Youth Hostel Association of India, 5 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021. Only those who went into similar expeditions during the last two years would not be eligible for any financial grant.

Khurana’s call to make Indian Railways World champion

SS Khurana, chairman of Railway Board has urged all railway men and women to join hands to work together to make Indian Railways the number one in the world. During the 55th Railway Week celebrations on Tuesday, Mr Khurana gave away the Running Shield, Merit Certificates and Cash Awards to the meritorious officers and staff and sports persons etc.

(In Pic: Mr Khurana presenting the Efficiency Shield to the best maintained Branch)

Action and Appointments

a) Manmohan Singh, Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, Jag Jivan Ram Midha, Rajiv Shakdher, Sunil Gaur and Mool Chand Garg have been appointed as Additional Judges of the Delhi High Court.

b) Harish Tandon has been appointed as a Judge of the Calcutta High Court.

c) Justice Kishan Swaroop Chaudhari, Justice Mahesh Chandra Bhagwati and Justice Chand Mal Totla have been appointed as Additional Judges of the Rajasthan High Court.

d) Justice Surendra Singh, Justice Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Justice Shashi Kant Gupta, Justice Bala Krishna Narayana, Justice Rajesh Dayal Khare, Justice Shabihul Hasnain, Justice Abhinava Upadhya, Justice Suresh Chandra Chaurasia, Justice Syed Nazim Husain Zaidi, Justice Ved Pal, Justice Brahma Nand Shukla, Justice Raj Mani Chauhan, and Dr.Justice Satish Chandra have been appointed as Judges of the Allahabad High Court.

Railway officials take a lead in carrying forward spirit of ‘Science Express’

IN A major departure from politicians flagging off major railway initiatives, Indian Railways’ senior most bureaucrat and chairman of Railway Board S S Khurana inaugurated the phase-III of the ‘Science Express’ on October 2, 2009 at Gandhinagar, which will finally travel to 55 locations, covering about 18,000 km in the next seven months. Significantly, it was originally flagged off from New Delhi on October 30, 2007 by Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and Chancellor of Germany. The train has been showcased in 108 cities across India in two phases. The sparkling white fully air conditioned train with 16 coaches was custom made and specially fabricated at Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. According to railway ministry release, over 35 lakh people, mostly students, have already enjoyed learning about cutting-edge research in science, explained through interesting audio visual exhibits and interactive tools. Along with Railway Board chairman Khurana, several other senior railway officials were present at Gandhi Nagar station on October 2 to take part on the inauguration of the third phase of the train. (See picture) Straight From Files a) Life is fun at Railway Staff College (August 2, 2009) b) Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu recalculating Rs 90,000 crore railway surplus (July 13, 2009) c) Mamata announces a slew of welfare measures for railway employees (July 4, 2009) d) Railway officials may need to carry files to Kolkata now (May 27, 2009)

Changing Tracks: Railway officials may need to carry files to Kolkata now

NO CHUGGING along anymore! India’s top railway officials may need to catch more flights to Kolkata in the coming days if Rail Bhawan bigwigs’ early morning journey to the city of joy on May 26 is any indication. In fact, carrying all official files, chairman of the Railway Board S S Khurana, Board’s secretary K B L Mittal along with several Board members and senior officials flew to Kolkata on Tuesday morning as new railway minister Kumari Mamata Banerjee decided to take over as the new railway minister in Kolkata, and not in Delhi. President of All India Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee, who was recently re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha on her 7th term from Kolkata (South) constituency in West Bengal, decided to assume the charge of her office at eastern railway headquarters in Kolkata as she needed to be with the people in West Bengal who were affected by a massive cyclone. But the railway babus in New Delhi have already begun to discuss that they would have to carry files to Kolkata many more times as Ms Banerjee would be more active in state politics rather than being stationed in New Delhi. It’s the time to change tracks…

Better ranks, better pay for 7 IAS The appointments committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of 1975 batch MP cadre IAS officer Jamini K Sharma, presently joint secretary in the ministry of textiles on compulsory wait in the ministry of textiles in the rank and pay of secretary, with effect from May 16, 2009, the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions has announced. Also, following appointments on in-situ elevation, with effect from May 17, 2009 have also been approved: a) Ms Rajwant Sandhu, IAS (Himachal Pradesh, 1975) as special secretary, ministry of Panchayati Raj b) N K Raghupathy, IAS (West Bengal, 1975) as chairman, staff selection commission in the rank and pay of Secretary c) A K Upadhyaya, IAS (Bihar, 1975) as special secretary, department of agriculture research and education, ministry of agriculture. d) B S Meena, IAS (Maharashtra, 1975) as Special Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Steel. e) Padmavir Singh, IAS (Madhya Pradesh, 1977) as joint director, LBSNAA, in the rank and pay of additional secretary f) S K Srivastava, IAS (Assam, 1977) as additional secretary, ministry of labour & employment