Rajiv Bansal set to become next Air India CMD after Ashwani Lohani appointed Railway Board Chairman

Rajiv Bansal is set to become the next Air India CMD for three months after Ashwani Lohani was appointed Chairman of Railway Board. Bansal, who is additional secretary and financial adviser at the petroleum ministry, will replace Ashwani Lohani — who has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board. The Railway Ministry on Wednesday appointed Ashwani Lohani as the new Chairman of Railway Board after AK Mital tendered his resignation following the derailment of Kaifiyat Express near Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh. An officer with the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), Lohani currently is the Chairman & Managing Director of Air India.

A senior civil aviation ministry official said that Bansal has been appointed as Air India CMD for three months. Bansal is from the Nagaland cadre of 1988 batch and hails from Haryana. He is taking over as Air India CMD at a time when the government is working on the modalities for the disinvestment of the loss-making national carrier.

He had served at the civil aviation ministry between 2006 and 2008.

(With PTI inputs)