New Delhi: In a move that will finally lead to a restructuring of the Railway Board, the government has given its nod and cleared the path for the appointment of Vinod Kumar Yadav as the first chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the board. VK Yadav, a 1980 batch officer of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), has been selected for the first-ever position of CEO of the Railway Board. ALSO READ | PM CARES Fund: Initial Corpus Of Rs 2.25 Lakhs Given By PM Modi, Received Rs 3,076.62 Cr In 5 Days Voluntarily

What is the Railway Board restructuring all about?

In 2019, the Union Cabinet gave its nod to the restructuring of the board through a leaner structure on functional lines headed by the chairman and four members — covering infrastructure, operations and business development, rolling stock, and finance.

The government has already planned a massive infrastructure development plan to the tune of Rs 50 trillion aiming to modernise the national transporter in the next 12 years. It will look towards improving things ranging from safety to speed and services. All these developments can be implemented if there is speedy decision-making by various departments.

However, ‘departmentalism’ in Railways was marked by inefficiency in work, infighting over control of assets and resources, and delay in decision making, as per the government. As per the Business Standard report, the present restructuring plan is expected to be a zero-cost exercise and will lead to saving by surrendering posts on the board and eliminating duplication of work.

The Railway Board had decided to unify the eight existing Group A services of the railways into a central service called the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS).

Who is Vinod Kumar Yadav?

Yadav is presently the chairman of the Railway Board. Based on the current restructuring plan, the chairman will be the cadre-controlling officer responsible for Human resources (HR) with assistance from a director-general (HR).

Before being promoted as the chairman of the Railway Board, Yadav was in charge of South Central Railway and hold the position of General Manager, South Central Railway. He was responsible for the overall management, general administration, human resource management, financial management, operation of the railway system, management of railway infrastructure, safety and security, maintaining good industrial relations and etc.

In 1982, Yadav began his career as an Assistant Electrical Engineer and worked in the Northern Railway as Chief Electrical Engineer, Lucknow DRM, Delhi’s ADRM Lucknow Loco Workshop, Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer.

Yadav has more than 15 years experience in handling Railway Electrification (RE) Projects including project in Turkey. He holds has experience in coordinating bilateral / multilateral funding. While working with Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, he was incharge of World Bank funding and led the team for successful finalisation of the first tranche of funding for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Project.

Check other major appointments

The board will also include sectoral experts from industry, finance, economics, and management fields. In addition to the CEO, the government has also appointed the four members — Pradeep Kumar for infrastructure, PC Sharma for traction and rolling stock, PS Mishra for operations and business development, and Manjula Rangarajan for finance.