Accidents, safety issues: A balancing job ahead for Railway Board's chair

As Railway Board chairman, Kumar, the first Dalit to get the office, will have to deal with rising cases of accidents and concerns of people both within and outside the Railways

Late last month, the Ministry of Railways created a historic first for the second time in as many years. A year after appointing Jaya Varma Sinha as the Railway Board’s first woman chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO), the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed Satish Kumar the head of the board —the first Dalit to get the office.
 

In the corridors of Rail Bhawan, Kumar had been seen as a contender but hardly a frontrunner for the top post, which made his appointment a surprise to many. Frontrunners included four serving members of the board.
 

Kumar was member (traction and rolling stock) before becoming chairman. He was inducted into the railway fraternity in 1986 from the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), and his colleagues have known him to be a thorough technocrat throughout his career.
 

“I have known him to be a meticulous man during my stints of working under him,” a senior official said. “He is someone with a modern outlook, leveraging technology wherever possible. He was responsible for developing a number of software-based tools and applications for operational purposes,” he added.
 

Kumar, who holds a bachelor of technology (B Tech) in mechanical engineering from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, made a key breakthrough with the “fog safe” Device.
 

The GPS-based navigation tool, designed to reduce contingencies during foggy weather with low to negligible visibility, provides on-board real-time information to loco pilots regarding the location of fixed landmarks such as signal, level crossing gate (manned & unmanned), permanent speed restrictions, neutral sections, etc.
 

It displays approach indications of the next three approaching fixed landmarks in geographical order accompanied with a

voice message approximately 500 metres on approach. So far, Indian Railways has deployed 20,000 such devices across the 67,000-kilometre rail network.
 

Kumar has served in various pivotal roles across different zones and divisions. His initial postings included the Jhansi Division of the erstwhile Central Railway and the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) in Varanasi, where he honed his skills in locomotive engineering and maintenance. He later served in the North Eastern Railway, Gorakhpur, and Patiala Locomotive Works, contributing to critical projects that enhanced the operational efficiency of these divisions.

Before being inducted into the brass of the railway headquarters in New Delhi, he had served as general manager of North Central Railway (NCR) in Prayagraj since November 2022.
 

A zonal official stationed in Prayagraj, who worked with Kumar during his time as divisional railway manager (DRM) of the Lucknow division of Northern Railway from 2017 to 2019, says unlike a number of railway officers, Kumar likes to keep his ear to the ground, and enjoys the support of his subordinates due to his bottom-up approach to planning.
 

Kumar was DRM during the Kumbh Mela in 2019, which is seen as among the most challenging times for the railway administration, because it has to facilitate the smooth movement of tens of millions of pilgrims on the most congested route of the railway network.
 

“The 2019 Kumbh Mela preparations went incredibly well under his leadership,” the official recalled. “Although he is a workhorse and expects his team to operate likewise, he is also a patient listener and someone who would collaborate with you for solutions and take ownership of the job rather than issue diktats. His approach was appreciated from the numerous meetings we had in the runup to the Kumbh,” he added.
 

Another senior official, who was in regular correspondence with Kumar during his tenure as senior deputy general manager and chief vigilance officer in Jaipur, described Kumar as “laborious, unbiased, and driven by strong values”.
 

“It is great that a Dalit has been given recognition at the highest echelon of the railways, and perhaps his grounded approach is exactly what the railways needs right now,” he said.
 

The ministry is in the middle of a political storm, with Opposition leaders, particularly Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, standing in support of loco pilots who’ve been seeking better working conditions. Gandhi recently called train operation staff the “Mahadalits” of the railway ecosystem, claiming that the transporter runs what’s akin to a caste hierarchy.
 

“However, the portrayal of his success being owed to his Dalit background does not do justice to his excellent service record, which has been the key driver for his elevation to the top post,” the official quoted above said.
 

But Kumar’s appointment led to political contestation between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.
 

Congress social media handles credited Kumar’s appointment to their former party president, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, questioning the government about the lack of officers from the Dalit (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, or SCs and STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) communities at the top echelons of the bureaucracy. Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of the Congress’ social media and digital platforms, termed it “the Rahul Gandhi impact”.
 

Organiser, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) inspired weekly, said Kumar’s appointment was proof of the “Narendra Modi government empowering SCs, STs and OBCs”.
 

Political commentator Dilip Mandal, whom Organiser quoted on the subject, ridiculed Shrinate’s claim.
 

“A man becomes a class 1 officer in the railways, is a tech expert, works hard for 34 years to climb up the ranks, and is a renowned name in the field of rail safety and credited for the ‘fog safe device’. But his becoming chairman is a ‘Rahul Gandhi impact’! So why didn’t a Dalit become chairman during Congress rule,” Mandal asked on X.

To this Ashok Bharti, chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations, replied that a Dalit could have become Railway Board chairman in 2023 itself, but a capable Dalit officer, Roop Naryana Sunkar, was superseded. “But at the time, Rahul Gandhi had not flagged how there were no SC, ST and OBC officers in the pre-Budget halwa ceremony,” Bharti, who has recently been campaigning for the Congress candidates, said.
 

Beyond the political contestation, during his tenure as member (traction and rolling stock), a charge he still holds in an additional capacity, Kumar has been overseeing the procurement of the Vande Bharat short-distance and sleeper trains, an expedited procurement plan for mass-carrier Amrit Bharat trains, and new-age rolling stock and safety equipment.
 

As chairman and CEO, he will have to deal with the rising cases of accidents and concerns of people both within and outside the railways, in terms of working standards of the staff and congestion woes, particularly of low-income passengers.
 

With a rapidly changing political scenario, officials expect a challenging tenure for Kumar, who will have to balance various

kinds of political pressures on the railways and make critical decisions.
 

Kumar is married, and his wife is a doctor.