Former chairman of the Railway Board and two-time chief of Air India, Ashwani Lohani, has joined GMR Group’s Services Business (which includes railways) as chief executive officer (CEO). The move may well be a boost for the company, as it was in the process of expanding its wings in the Railways sector by showing its interests in the private train project, station redevelopment plans and dedicated freight corridors (DFC).
The move comes some 19 months after he retired from the post of chairman of the Railway Board. Lohani’s move is a prize catch for the company’s railway division considering that it entered the business only in 2013-14, by winning two Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) projects in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Later in 2014-15, it was awarded four key projects on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) in UP worth Rs 7,361 crore.
