The Railway Board has appointed three new commissioners of railway safety (CRS) to fill vacant posts in the Commission of Railway Safety, which deals with the safety aspects of rail travel and train operations while playing statutory inspectorial, investigatory and advisory functions.
The appointment orders were issued after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved four senior railway officers’ names for the posts of CRS on October 18.Sources in the Indian Railways said the fourth appointment is in the process too.
There are 10 offices of the Commission of Railway Safety across the country, besides its headquarters in Lucknow where the chief commissioner of railway safety sits.
Of these 10 offices, four — Northern Circle, South Central Circle, Northeast Frontier Circle and South Eastern Circle — did not have commissioners for a while and the CRS from other circles were holding additional charges to look after their functions.
The three officers who have been appointed as CRS are Dinesh Chand Deshwal, Madhavi and Brajesh Kumar Mishra.
Deshwal was serving as the chief bridge engineer at the North Western Railway headquarters in Jaipur before taking charge as the CRS, Northern Circle in New Delhi.
Madhavi worked as the chief communication engineer in the Southern Railway before being appointed as the CRS, South Central Circle in Secunderabad. According to the sources, she is yet to take the charge.
Mishra, who has taken over as the CRS of the South Eastern Circle, left his previous position as chief engineer, road safety work and bridge rehabilitation in the East Coast Railway.
On October 18, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved a proposal from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for appointing four officers to the posts of CRS in the Commission of Railway Safety.
The commission comes under the authority of the MoCA under the principle of separation of the functions of investigation from the Railway Board.