Mumbai: Alok Kansal, General Manager, Western Railway has taken over the additional charge of General Manager, Central Railway. Sanjeev Mittal, General Manager, Central Railway has been promoted as Member Infrastructure, Railway Board, New Delhi.
Kansal is a senior officer of the 1983 batch of Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), who has been working as General Manager of Western Railway from January 14, 2020. He completed his graduation in Civil Engineering with a gold medal from University of Roorkee, and completed his Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering with a gold medal from the same institute.
He carries varied experience of more than 18 years in operation and maintenance of high speed and heavy density traffic routes. Kansal was the first Engineering Assistant Officer associated with the introduction of the first Shatabdi Express, the high-speed train of Indian Railways.
He headed the Engineering branch of Delhi division, the largest division in Indian Railways and had also worked as Chief Track Engineer over Bilaspur and Northern Zones. He played a pivotal role in finalizing the first Vehicular UDFD on Rajdhani routes of Northern Railway, North Central Railway and West Central Railway.
As a Construction Engineer, Kansal has executed a number of important projects of Gauge conversion, Doubling projects on Golden Quadrilateral & ECR. The longest (2 kms) PSC box girder (54.5 m span) over Thane-Creek bridge at Mumbai was executed by him. Prior to his posting as General Manager, Western Railway he has served as Principal Executive Director/Civil Engineering (Planning) at Railway Board.
Amongst the various assignments he has held are as DRM of Nagpur division of South East Central Railway which handled the important operational interchange point which is nerve centre for the freight loading of Bilaspur Zone. He was actively involved in policy making at Railway Board covering all subjects of Civil Engineering such as elimination of manned level crossings, rehabilitation of bridges which had progressed more than 3 times during this period.
Kansal’s rich experience spanning over 36 years in IRSE has seen him deliver various important projects. He has also authored two books “A-Z for Quality Control and Inspection of Concrete Sleepers” and "Learning the First Step by A Railway Engineer", which are practical guides for all field Assistant Divisional Engineers of Indian Railways.
