Lohani faces titanic task of putting Railways on track

New Delhi: It's a ghar wapasi for Ashwani Lohani, who is an Indian Railway Service officer of the 1980 batch. Though Lohani has been appointed as new Chairman of Railways Board (CRB) on Wednesday, the 'house' (railways infrastructure) is not completely in 'order' to welcome the officer who has many best performance records in his name.

Given the existing infrastructure of Railways when train accidents have become a routine affair, the tenure of Lohani (till December 2018) as new CRB is not going to be a cakewalk for him as it appears to be. There would be challenges in abundance for the man who's tireless efforts converted loss-making Air India into a profit-making body.

The major challenges that Lohani would face to bring the house in order include Railway safety reforms, punctuality of trains, derailments, overhauling of tracks, improving the quality of food in trains, availability of confirmed tickets, etc. According to officials, who have worked with Lohani during his different postings, the new CRB has the talent to handle every critical situation single-handedly in a much-organised manner.

"When Lohani was given the charge of Air India CMD, it was a surprise for all, but it's the result of his dedicated efforts that he turned the new posting in his favour. The loss-making PSU started making profits," the official said, adding that Air India posted an operational profit in 2015-16, for the first time ever after the merger.

The airline has improved its image perception and also made a quantum improvement in its passenger services besides expanding to various domestic and international destinations.

Lohani was appointed CRB soon after incumbent AK Mittal resigned citing personal reasons. Lohani, an Indian Railway Service officer of the 1980 batch, is known to have turned around the ailing state-run airline's financial health.

He faces a bigger challenge now as the government is trying to revamp the world's fourth-largest rail network that has 12,000 passenger trains and 7,000-odd stations, and carries 23 million passengers each day — equivalent of Australia's population, but fatal crashes, poor revenue and work sloth have dented the railways' credibility.

Hours before Mittal quit and Lohani was appointed his successor, more than 20 people were injured as 10 coaches of the Kaifiyat Express bound for New Delhi jumped tracks after colliding with a dumper in Uttar Pradesh.

Prior to this, over 20 people died after 13 coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district on August 19. During his previous stint with the railways, Lohani handled its mechanical division.

There has been reported that over 300 train accidents occurred in the country since 2015 when Suresh Prabhu took over the portfolio. However, as like his predecessors, the Railways Minister too failed to implement the recommendations of the Anil Kakodkar committee on railway safety that was accepted by the ministry five years ago.

As Lohani is known for taking new initiatives, it's anticipated that the new CRB may take some ground-breaking steps to revamp rail safety.

Lohani was also the director of National Rail Museum and CMD of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation. He successfully piloted the nomination of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway as a Unesco world heritage site. He was decorated with the railway national award for outstanding performance in 1996.