After the devastating train derailment incident, the Indian Railways came under a lot of problems. Earlier, the railway minister Suresh Prabhu offered to resign from his post, and then board chairman AK Mittal left his post.
Now that Ashwani Lohani has replaced AK Mittal for the post, people are whole heartedly welcoming him.
After taking up the post of Chairman of Railway Board, Lohani told reporters-
“Safety will be our topmost focus, of course. Cleanliness, improvement of stations, ending corruption and VIP culture would be other areas of focus.”
However, for those who don’t know much about him, Ashwani Lohani was the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Air India earlier. He was popularly known as the “turnaround man” and that’s why everyone is hailing the government’s decision to select him for the post.
While he worked as a CMD of Air India, it showed an operational profit in 2015-16 for the first time after its merger. The airline improved its image perception and also made a quantum improvement in its passenger services, besides expanding to various domestic and international destinations.
Lohani has also worked as a batch officer of the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) in 1980. He played an excellent role in putting up Indian rail heritage on the world map by upgrading the “steam shed” at Rewari.
Due to his initiatives, World’s oldest steam engine, Fairy Queen ran on the Indian tracks setting the Guinness world record in 1998.
For this, he is credited with turning around the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and the Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC).
Ashwani Lohani also holds the Limca National Record for four earning 4 engineering degrees. He is a qualified chartered mechanical engineer from I.Mech. E (UK) and holds degrees equivalent in electrical engineering, metallurgical engineering from the Institute of Engineers of India.
Lohani is also respected for his “inter-personal skills”.
During one of his earlier work as the divisional railway manager of Delhi, the New Delhi Railway Station was awarded the National Tourism Award in the category of the “most friendly tourist station”. The Indian Railways also received appreciation from the Comptroller and Auditor General in its audit report on the Commonwealth Games.
Impressed?
