K C Jena takes over as Railway Board Chairman

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Mr K C Jena, an officer of the 1971 batch of Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTC), today took over as Chairman of the Railway Board, bringing to the office his enormous operational management skills.

Mr Jena, pioneer of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as the future to modernisation and expansion of Indian Railways, succeeds Mr Ramesh Chandra, who superannuated today.

Prior to his new assignment, Mr Jena was Member (Staff), Railway Board. In the capacity of Board Chairman, he will be ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Government of India.

An alumnus of the Madras Christian College, Chennai and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, he joined the IRTS in 1971.

His elevation to the highest post of the Board comes at a time when the Railways is witnessing an unprecedented turnaround and is poised for phenomenal leaps in both passenger and freight segments.

Mr Jena had earlier held important operational management assignments on the South Eastern railway, including that of the Chief Freight Traffic Manager.

Known for his dynamic leadership and pro-active aproach to challenges, he joined the Railway Board as Executive Director (Safety) and then took over as Executive Director (Coaching).

He also served as Chief Commercial Manager (Passenger Services) and Chief Operating Manager, Western Railway.

Mr Jena is a recipient of the prestigious Zonal Efficiency Shield for Excellence in Operations for 2004-05. He also received this year's Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award from the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

His stint as Divisional Railway Manager, Vadodra saw path-breaking initiatives in the field of passenger amenities and in pioneering the concept of SPV as the future to modernisation and expansion of Railways.

Among the other posts he held were those of AGM, Central Railway; General Manager, North Central Railway; and GM, East Central Railway.

Mr Jena received training in Britain on Inter-modal traffic at the University College of Cardiff, on Management Information Systems in Sweden, Germany and the US and on Management Essentials for High Potential Executives at STERN School of Business, New York.

He was elected National Chairman of the Indian chapter of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), headquartered in the UK.

UNI