NEW DELHI, December 25: VK Agrawal, a member of the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), will take over as the new chairman of the Railway Board on January one, 1998. He will succeed M Ravindra, who retires on December 31.

Agrawal, who is at present member (staff) in the Railway Board, will also be ex-officio principal secretary to the government. He is due to retire in August next year. Born on August 11, 1940, Agrawal topped BSc-engineering in 1961 and won the Aligarh University gold medal. After working as a lecturer at the Aligarh Muslim University for a year, he joined the northern railway in 1962. During his 35-year old career with the railways, Agrawal has functioned as divisional superintending engineer, northern railway, chief engineer (construction), northeast frontier railway and divisional railway manager, northern railway.

He was also advisor (vigilance) with the railway ministry and worked as an expert with the Iraqi Republic Railways at Baghdad before joining the Railway Board after a stint as general manager, northern railway.

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