NEW DELHI: After approval of the Union cabinet’s appointment committee, the Ministry of Railway appointed Anil Kumar Lahoti as the new chairman and CEO of the Railway Board with effect from January 1. Lahoti is the 1984-batch officer of the Indian Railway Service of Engineering (IRSE) and he assumed the charges on Sunday.
According to an official statement issued to the media on Sunday, Lahoti earlier had worked as a Member (Infrastructure) of the Railway Board. He has been empanelled in the first panel of the Indian Railway Management Service for Level 17. Lahoti graduated in civil engineering with a gold medal from Madhav Institute of Technology and Science in Gwalior and pursued the Master of Engineering (Structures) from the University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee).
Lahoti, in a career spanning over 36 years in the railways, worked in various capacities over Central, Northern, North Central, Western, and West Central Railways and in Railway Board.
“He had worked earlier as GM of Central Railway with an additional charge of the GM of Western railway,” said an official statement of the Railway Ministry. His stint as General Manager is credited with achieving the highest-ever freight and parcel traffic in terms of tonnage carried and revenue earned including running the highest number of Kissan Rails.
Lahoti is also credited with steering the expansion of air-conditioned suburban services in Mumbai and had been instrumental in the commissioning of infrastructure projects like the 5th and 6th line between Diva and Thane in Mumbai.
He also worked as DRM in Lucknow and Northern Railways where he initiated to improve the freight movements on the Lucknow-Varanasi DDU line. He was also associated with planning for the redevelopment of New Delhi station. He also conducted studies on the development of stations in Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, Germany and Switzerland.