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 mechanical, 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 Development Corporation, where he

played a pivotal role in revitalizing tourism in the state. In the Indian Railways, Lohani held key positions

including Divisional Railway Manager of Delhi Division and Chief Mechanical 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 serves 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.

Advisory Board