Railway Board gets first-ever woman CEO and Chairperson

The Secretariat of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on 31 announced the appointment of Jaya Verma Sinha as first woman CEO and chairperson of Railway Board. She succeeds Anil Kumar Lahoti.

The appointment of Jaya Varma Sinha will be effective from 1 September till her superannuation.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Smt. Jaya Verma Sinha, Indian Railway Management Services (IRMS), Member (Operations & Business Development), Railway Board to the post of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Railway Board in thn Apex scale [Pay Level -17 as per 7th CPC] for a period w.e.f. the date of assumption of charge on or after 01.09.2023 till the date of her superannuation and her re-employment on the post w.e.f. 01.09.2023 till 31.08.2024 on usual terms and conditions, or until further orders, whichever is earlier," the notice said.

Sinha was at the centre stage of the railways' media interactions recently when, as the Member (Operations and Business Development), she explained the complex signalling system after the tragic Balasore accident which killed nearly 300 people.

An Alumnus of the Allahabad University, Sinha joined the Indian Railway Traffic Service in 1988 and worked in Northern Railway, South-East Railway and Eastern Railway.

She also worked as Railway Advisor in the High Commission of India, Dhaka, Bangladesh for four years. The Maitree Express from Kolkata to Dhaka was inaugurated during her tenure in Bangladesh. She also worked as the Divisional Railway Manager, Eastern Railway, Sealdah Division.