Ashwani Lohani


Ashwani Lohani is a retired officer of Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers. He has earlier worked as the Chairman & Managing Director of Air India and the Chairman of the Railway Board of Indian Railways.

Early life and education

Lohani was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling at St. Aloysius High School, Kanpur and studied engineering at Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jamalpur. He is a mechanical engineer; as part of his training at IRIMEE, he attended training in mechanical, electrical and telecommunications at Jamalpur Workshop. He holds four engineering degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgical engineering and electronics & telecommunication engineering from Institution of Engineers, Kolkata. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
Ashwani is from the 1980s batch of Indian Railways Service officer & joined as the director for the National Rail Museum in 1993. In 2001 he joined India Tourism Development Corporation as Chairman and Managing Director. In 2004 he also become Commissioner and Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, a position that he held for almost six years in three different spells. At the end of 2009 he also served as Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division. After 2 years he joined Northern Railway as Chief Mechanical Enigneer. He then served as Chief Administrative Officer in the Ministry of Railways. In 2015 he was appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Moreover, he has been a Non-Executive Director of Air Mauritius Limited since October 2015. In 2017, he became the Chairman of Railway Board. In February 2019, he was reappointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India.

Records

He holds an omega aquaterra 2017 Limca Record for having four engineering degree in Mechanical engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical engineering and Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from Institution of Engineers, Kolkata; a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for successfully running the ‘Fairy Queen Express’, the world's oldest working steam locomotive.