Chairman Railway Board – Tenure and Cadre

Last updated on April 5th, 2015 at 06:17 am

The first Indian to work at the helm of Railway affairs was Sh. K. C. Bakle from 11th Sept 1947 till 31st March 1951 and designation as Chief Commissioner of Railways. From 1st April 1951, the new Railway Board was constituted with senior most member to act as Chairman Railway Board. The first Chairman of the newly constituted Railway Board was Sh. F. C. Badhwar with a degree in Civil Engineering and worked for 42 months till 30th Sept 1954. From this position, 37 eminent Railwayman of Indian origin occupied this position and Sh. Arunendra Kumar is the 39th CRB.

During the British period, the tenure used to be in the range of 5-15 years like Sir Gurthrie Russell occupying the position from 16th Oct. 1929 to 16th July 1940, for 10 years. But if one glance through the career period of Chairman Railway Board, this ranges from a minimum of 3 months to best of 42 months. Few statistical data on the list are as follows:

1. A list of six Chairman, Railway Board occupies the place for more than 30 months and others less than ten months as follows:

2. Cadres dominating the post of the Chairman, Railway Board. Railway officers are from different cadre as recruited through UPSC depending on one’s educational stream. Read more at http://globalrailelectrica.com/job-opportunities-in-rail-transport/group-a-services/

Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) , Indian Railway Traffic Services IRTS and Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) cadre mainly dominated the helm of affairs with only one IRSEE. IRSE is basically a cadre of civil engineers, IRTS through CSE-Allied services, IRSME consisting of officers through Special Class Railway Apprentice (SCRA)/Degree in Mechanical Engineering and IRSEE is of Electrical Engineering cadre.

1. Seven of 19 IRSE officers were Alumni of University of Roorkee presently called IIT/RoorkeeCivil Engineers  occupied this position for 417 months (IRSE 375 months)  till 2005 and none after that
2. IRTS has occupied this position prominently since 2005 i.e. 78 months of the total 196 months
3. Sh. Fateh Chand Bhadwar was holding a degree in Civil Engineering from Cambridge and joined East India Railway in 1925. In 1951 he was named Chairman of the Railway Board – the first Indian to occupy that office which he retained until his retirement in October 1954. The Railway officers colony at Colaba in Mumbai is named after him as “Badhwar Park Railway officers Colony”

The above statistics does not forecast what is in store in the future. Now, every cadre is having equal opportunity to rise to the position of Chairman Railway Board subject to the age at which he  joins the Railways.