Sanjiv Handa takes over as member Mechanical, Railway Board

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Sanjiv Handa, has taken over as Member Mechanical, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India here today. He comes in place of Shri Praveen Kumar who superannuated from this post on March 31, 2010. Shri Handa is Special Class Railways Apprenctice Officer of 1969 Batch. He joined the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineering on January 19, 1974.

Prior to joining as Member Mechanical, Railway Board, Shri Handa was holding the post of General Manager, East Central Railway since November 19, 2009. He had also held key position in Railway Board, South Eastern, South East Central, Southern and South Western Railways. He also worked as Additional Member (Mechanical Engineering) in Railway Board.

During his tenure as Divisional Railway Manager, Kharagpur, the Route Relay Interlocking system at Howrah station was upgraded. The prolonged non-interlocking working forced suspension of virtually all trains into Howrah for some days through Eastern Railway. However, Shri Handa ensured that train services from South Eastern Railway did not cease. Overnight an alternate was created at Santraganchi with no disruption to any of the long distance trains.

As Chief Mechanical Engineer, South East Central Railway he introduced 25 tone operation for the first time on Indian Railways. Initial Manufacture of Box ‘N’HL wagons which have become the main stay of Indian Railways began in golden rock workshop while he was CME, Southern Railway. Goods train through the steepest Ghat section of Indian Railways i.e. castle rock-quelem was earlier running only after breakup of loads to distribute 8 WDG3 required for each train. Shri Handa started using 5 WDG4 instead and confined them to the front and rear only. Load split was therefore avoided and overnight line capacity was doubled.

Features like opposite dynamic breaks were exploited for the first time on Indian Railways and even today South Western Railway is the only Railway on Indian Railways to do so. Again South Western Railway has become the first Railway to introduce distributed power system on Locomotive allowing traffic department to avoid engine and break van reversal at terminals. All these strategies radically improved the efficiency of operation.

Shri Handa brings with him a rich and wide experience of Railway management. He is well regarded because of his positive, sympathetic and helping attitude. Even though a work-alcoholic, he is socially active. He is a powerful orator and takes a keen interest in sports.

Shri Sanjiv Handa takes over as Member (Mechanical), Railway Board, in New Delhi on March 31, 2010.

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