Ashwani Lohani is new Railway Board chairman

NEW DELHI: Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani was appointed as chairman of the

Railway Board

after the incumbent A K Mital resigned from the post in the wake of recent train accidents.

The announcement by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet came hours after Railway minister Suresh Prabhu indicated that he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Met PM Narendra Modi. I am taking full moral responsibility. PM has asked me to wait,” Prabhu said in a tweet.

Mital had sent his resignation to Prime Minister’s Office yesterday and it was accepted late evening.

Sources said that Prabhu was not happy with

Mittal

and had been pushing for Mittal’s removal for past few days.

Mital was appointed to the topmost post in railways in 2014 to replace Arunendra Kumar.

Modi’s PMO chose to reappoint Mittal to the same post two days before his retirement in 2016. With the two year extension, Mital was to remain in the office till July 2018.

Lohani, an officer of the railway mechanical service, had served earlier as the Divisional Regional Manager of Delhi. He was also ITDC chairman as well as the director of the Rail Museum in the capital.