Ashutosh Gangal | General Manager (retired)
Indian Railway

I superannuated in March-2023 from position of General Manager, Northern Railway (Oct-2020 to Mar-2023), in Pay Matrix Level 16 under Ministry of Railways. I am an experienced top-level manager and have worked in positions of leadership, with a record of innovation and success throughout my career. I have a proven track record of successful execution in large organization Railway operations & general management, industrial engineering, manufacturing management, and all facets of rolling stock management ranging from design, manufacture, and maintenance. I have also exercised managerial control over budgeting, accounting & finance, commercial activities, maintenance of all railway assets (track, rolling stocks, overhead traction equipment, power supply, building maintenance and railway signals), purchasing, security and infrastructure construction activities. TRAINING PROGRAMMES: I have attended training courses in some of the World-renowned institutes & universities in Singapore, USA & Europe as under:

• Advanced Strategic Management Programme at Tepper School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University, USA in May-2018
• Training for Vigilance Officers from India (CVC) at International Anti-Corruption Academy, Laxenburg AUSTRIA in November-2017.
• Management Training Programm for DRMs at SDA Bocconi Business School, Milan, ITALY in September-2015.
• Workshop on Public Private Partnerships at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, Singapore in April-2009.
• Commissioning of SIEMENS Electrics for EMU trains in Erlangan, Nuremberg & Krefeld in December-2007
• Training on Improvement of Productivity in Railway Workshops By GTZ, Govt of Germany under INDO GERMAN TECH Coop Programme in November-2000.

  I have also visited China, Israel & Sweden in the course of my official work. I have educational qualification of Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering and a bachelor’s in Electronics & Communication Engineering.     WORK EXPERIENCE ROLLING STOCK MANAGEMENT I have worked for long years in several positions performing responsibilities in production, production control, industrial engineering. Rolling Stock Manufacture: Worked as head of Furnishing Factory of the ICF, the world’s largest passenger coach manufacturer for nearly four years from June-2006 to March-2010 and was responsible for production of coaches, associated sub-assemblies, installation, and testing of electronic control & propulsion system of EMU coaches, production planning & control activities to ensure that the flow of finished coaches is maintained and finished coaches are sent to their end-users. Apart from this, close coordination with the material management department was maintained to achieve the flow of coaches. Coordination with the shell factory and design office was also maintained as prototyping of new designs was a regular activity. An important new stream of production of Mumbai suburban trains under the World-Bank funding was assigned to ICF with electrics supply from Siemens, Germany. The production rate for MRVC rakes for this project was stepped up by identifying and eliminating the bottlenecks and was sustained at high levels of 4-5 per month. Prior to this, ICF production for EMU rakes had only been about 1 to 1.5 rakes per month. This was appreciated by the government of Maharashtra and The World Bank. Completed the installation & commissioning of new assembly bays for achieving the targets for the MRVC project as also a new Paint shop and made it operational within 2 months of commissioning. As in charge of mechanical & electrical furnishing production activities in ICF, I handled the inspection and prototyping issues of traction, braking and electronic propulsion control. Rolling Stock Design: Looked after design of wagons and design of coaching bogies, design, and development of LHB variant coaches, bogie designs for all coaches and container flats, modeling, and simulation, including coordination for oscillation trials and processing of speed certificate. Headed the Vehicle Dynamics Group of Carraige Directorate. As Director/Standards Wagon, I also looked after the Container section in RDSO, dealing with container flats. First Trial of double stack containers and their approval for operation on the section where the track clearance was available on ADI-MSH section of WR. Rolling Stock Maintenance: I have worked in rolling stock maintenance in various zones of IR and in several repair workshops for all types of rolling stock and divisions & diesel locomotive sheds. Some of the more important positions have been as head of Tirupati & New Bongaigaon Workshops, head of Vatva Diesel Shed. I also held important positions in Lower Parel & Ajmer workshops and Ratlam & Abu Road Diesel Sheds. GENERAL & OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

1. General Manager, Northern Railway: (from Oct-2020 to Mar-2023): Headed the largest zone of Indian Railways with success, with the Zone being adjudged as the best managed zone for 2022-23. The zone has a staff strength of nearly 130,000, 10,350 track kilometers and 7,215 route kilometers. The zone also had the highest number of workshops under its management for coaches, wagons, locomotives & bridges. It also runs the highest number of passenger trains. I was fully responsible for the safety and operations under the Indian Railway Act.

The general management required me to exercise control over a vast spread-out manpower and all its activities throughout its territory, including full control & responsibility for operations, maintenance (locomotives, coaches, wagons, trainsets & EMUs, track & bridges, electronic signaling & telecom, overhead traction installations,), finance & accounts, commercial activities, planning, construction etc. Workshop activities were performed at various locations of the zone at Lucknow (4 workshops), Jagadhary, Jalandhar, Amritsar & Kalka.

2. Additional Member/Planning Railway Board: (Aug-2020 to Oct-2020) I was tasked with responsibility of development of strategic plans for capacity, project evaluations of major projects, National Rail Plan, NIP etc. The period achieved significant progress in preparation of the National Rail Plan with RITES, AECOM & DELOITTE.
3. Senior Deputy General Manager, Central Railway (May-2016 to Feb-2018) I headed the vigilance and general management department of Central Railways.
4. Divisional Railway Manager, Vadodara, (Jan-2014 to Apr-2016), on Mumbai-Delhi trunk route and amongst the busiest routes. It connects ports at Dahej and Hazira, Vadodara refinery, fertilizer plants KRIBHCO, GSFC & GNFC, & Wanakbori power plant and container terminals at Vadodara, Ankaleswar and Hazira.

The division received the overall efficiency shield for 2015 in Railway Week 2016. Three major achievements of my tenure are as under:

5. Group General Manager (Technical), Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) (April-2010 to Dec-2013): Handled issues of workshop management, maintenance & operations of containers & container handling machines, coordination with zonal railways, RDSO and Railway board for Container Wagons designs, operation, and manufacturing. Also looked after installation & maintenance of electronic weigh bridges and technical issues for cold chains for CONCOR subsidiary, Fresh & Healthy Enterprises.