Sh. Ajay Bisaria

Born in 1958, Ashwani Lohani is a distinguished officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), 1980 batch. He hails from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and completed his schooling at St. Aloysius High School. He pursued engineering at the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IRIMEE), Jamalpur, and holds an extraordinary academic record with four engineering degrees in  echanical, electrical, metallurgical, and electronics & telecommunication

engineering from the Institution of Engineers, Kolkata. 

With over four decades of exemplary service, Lohani has held several high-impact leadership roles across India’s transport and tourism sectors.  His early career saw him as Director of the National Rail Museum in 1993, followed by his appointment as Chairman and Managing Director of India Tourism Development Corporation in 2001. He later served as Commissioner and Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism  evelopment Corporation, where he played a pivotal role in revitalizing  ourism in the state. In the Indian Railways, Lohani held key positions including Divisional Railway Manager of Delhi Division and Chief  echanical Engineer of Northern Railway. His tenure as Chairman of the Railway Board from 2017 to 2018 was marked by a strong emphasis on operational efficiency and passenger-centric reforms. Lohani also served two terms as Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, first from 2015 to 2017 and again from 2019 to 2020. After retiring from government service, he joined the GMR Group as Chief Executive  officer from August 2020 to February 2025. Currently, Ashwani Lohani  erves as the Director of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society, a role he assumed in June 2025. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India, and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and  transport, reflecting his deep commitment to engineering excellence and public service.