Ram Janm Transferred to Banaras Locomotive Works as Principal Chief Engineer

Ram Janm, an Indian Railway Service of Engineers officer presently serving as Chief Project Director (Station Development) with East Coast Railway, has been transferred to Banaras Locomotive Works and posted as Principal Chief Engineer, according to an order issued this week.

Banaras Locomotive Works, one of Indian Railways' major diesel and electric locomotive manufacturing units, produces and overhauls locomotives that run across the national network. The Principal Chief Engineer heads the unit's engineering functions, overseeing production quality, manufacturing processes, and technical upgrades at a facility central to the Railways' locomotive fleet management, a role that carries direct accountability for the reliability of locomotives dispatched to zones across the country.

Janm's most recent role as Chief Project Director for Station Development on East Coast Railway involved overseeing redevelopment projects at stations along the zone's network, work that has become a major focus for Indian Railways as it pursues modernisation of station infrastructure across the country under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme, which covers hundreds of stations nationwide. That project-execution background differs from the manufacturing-floor engineering work at a locomotive works, though IRSE officers rotate across both domains over their careers as part of the service's broad engineering mandate.

He held the station development post on East Coast Railway prior to this transfer, a zone headquartered in Bhubaneswar that covers rail infrastructure across Odisha, including several stations that have been taken up for redevelopment under the national station modernisation programme.

The transfer moves Janm from project execution to manufacturing oversight, a shift that reflects the Railways' practice of rotating senior engineering officers across its diverse operational and production functions rather than confining careers to a single specialisation, a practice intended to build officers with broad exposure across the organisation's engineering functions.

At Banaras Locomotive Works, Janm will be responsible for maintaining production quality and pushing forward technical upgrades at a unit that continues to manufacture and overhaul diesel and electric locomotives even as Indian Railways accelerates its shift toward electrified traction across the network, a transition that has changed the mix of locomotive types the unit is expected to produce and maintain.

The transfer and posting take effect as per the order issued this week.