Ramesh Chandra takes over as Railway Board chairman

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) Mr Ramesh Chandra, Member (Electrical) and seniormost member of the Railway Board, today formally assumed charge as officiating chairman of the Board.

An announcement to this effect was made yesterday by the Railway Ministry following the superannuation of incumbent chairman Jay Prakash Batra.

In addition to the new assignment, Mr Chandra will continue to function as Member (Electrical). His term expires on August 31 this year.

An officer of the 1968 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Mr Chandra has been Member (Electrical) since May 1, 2005. Prior to this, he worked as General Manager, Southern Railway.

During his 37-year-long career, he served in various capacities, including as Divisional Railway Manager, Mugalsarai, Chief Electrical Engineer, South Eastern Railway, Additional General Manager, Eastern Railway, Senior Deputy General Manager, South Central Railway; and OSD, South East Central Railway.

He is credited to have been associated with several important projects of railway electrification, including on the Delhi-Mathura-Agra-Jhansi-Bina-Bhopal-Itarsi-Bhusawal route. He also contributed substantially while serving at RDSO, Lucknow.

An Engineering graduate from the Aligarh Muslim University and recipient of two Gold Medals, Mr Chandra was also awarded a Gold Medal by the Institution of Engineers, UP Centre in 1967.

He was again conferred the prestigious award by Institution of Engineers on the occasion of Engineers' Day on September 15, 2005.

Mr Chandra has had several foreign assignments. He visited Japan, the US, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and France in connection with various training programmes, seminars, finalisation of designs and test schedules.

UNI