Air India chief Lohani becomes Railway Board Chairman

The last five days have seen two train accidents and series of actions taken against officials across the Indian Railways hierarchy.

Wednesday also saw a change at the top level with Railway Board Chairman AK Mital quitting and Ashwani Lohani, who is the Chairman of Air India, being appointed to the post.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet accepted Mital’s request to be relieved and appointed Lohani.

Lohani is a Railway official from the mechanical cadre and his name had been doing the rounds for the top post for some time. Mital got an extension of two years last year after his superannuation.

The day also saw Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeting that he took full moral responsibility for the recent train accidents and was willing to step down, but the Prime Minister asked him “to wait”.

Sources said this could be because a Cabinet reshuffle is also on the cards.

Asked about the resignations, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: “The Prime Minister will take a decision on whatever request the Railway Minister has made”.

Last Saturday, the Utkal Express derailed, leading to 23 deaths and 126 injuries, and this led to railway field staff being suspended. Top railway board and zonal officials were sent on leave based on prima facie evidence.

Second incident On Wednesday there was another accident where a truck loader hit the Azamgarh-Delhi Kaifiat Express train on the Kanpur-Etawah section in Uttar Pradesh, injuring as many as 100 passengers, according to agencies.

On Sunday night, several top railway officials including Member-Engineering Railway Board, GM (Northern) Railway, DRM (Northern Railway) were sent on leave, while several field level officials were suspended, based on prima facie evidence.

While action had been taken against several officials, the Commissionerate of Railway Safety – North, will take a final call on the issue.

The morale of Railway employees has also taken a beating. The Utkal Express accident was the result of the train derailing as it sped past a station where the tracks were under repair. There were other systemic issues also indicating the pressure on the system.

In Railway circles, officials point out that instances of field staff undertaking maintenance activities without officially informing their superiors may not be uncommon as they are under pressure to keep trains running.

There is huge pressure not to block trains, as that would lead to a cascading delay down the line, inviting brickbats not just from high-ups, but also politicians and the public. The operating and signal departments, which have access to the keys of junction boxes, had probably tinkered with the signalling system to carry out the repair work, said railway engineers.

There is a need to build in maintenance time in the work time table, as used to be the case earlier, said officials.

“There were some 1.3 lakh vacancies in the safety category, of which half are being filled,” said a source in the know.

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