OREANDA-NEWS. Shri Pradeep Kumar has been appointed as new Member Staff, Railway Board & Ex-officio Secretary to the Govt. of India. Prior to this appointment he was General Manager, North-Central Railway along with additional charge of General Manager, Northern Railway. He succeeds Shri A.K.Mital, who has been elevated as Chairman, Railway Board & Ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Govt. of India.

Belonging to the Indian Railway Services of Engineering of 1977 batch, Shri Pradeep Kumar has graduated from with Bachelors in Civil Engineering from University of Roorkee and joined Railway services on North-Eastern Railway in the year 1978. Shri Kumar has a wide range of experience of working with various zones like North-Eastern, Northern, North-Central, Eastern, South Eastern, South Central and Northern Railway as well in the Railway Design and Standards Organization(RDSO) as well as in the apex body of Railway Board.

Shri Kumar has held several important positions viz. Addl. Member, Civil Engineering, Railway Board, Advisor, Railway Projects, Railway Board, Executive Director (Training & Manpower Planning), Railway Board , Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway, Delhi, Chief Bridge Engineer and also the Chief Track Engineer, Northern Railway. He was also deputed to work abroad on assignments and has represented the Indian Railways at various forums in Germany, Italy, France, Finland, Hungary, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and USA. Shri Kumar also secured MDPA from IIPA, New Delhi in the year 1997.

The tenure of Shri Kumar in each of the above key assignments is marked with noteworthy distinctions. While in the RDSO, he had designed a special type of concrete sleeper which are laid on points and crossings, known as Fan shaped turnouts. These turnouts have helped to improve track maintenance and safety and are adopted as standard on Indian Railways. Similarly, his term as an Executive Director, Civil Engineering & Planning is marked with the distinction of achieving highest ever progress for Track Renewals. As the head of the department of Civil Engineering on South Central Railway, he spearheaded the zone to win the Civil Engineering shield for three years consecutively for 2009-10, 2010-11 & 2011-12 respectively and the Shield for Level-crossings & ROBs for the year 2011-12. As Addl. Member, Civil Engineering, Railway Boards, he has looked after policy matters of Civil Engineering.