Rajiv Bansal to be interim Air India chief

NEW DELHI: Senior IAS officer

Rajiv Bansal

will hold additional charge as Air India chairman for three months, with incumbent Ashwani Lohani being appointed as the

Railway Board

chairman on Wednesday.

Bansal is currently additional secretary and financial advisor in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. He will hold this charge “for a period of three months or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” says the order issued by the government on Wednesday.

Bansal, a civil engineer from IIT Delhi, has in the past served as director in the aviation ministry and was on the board of directors of National Aviation Company of India Ltd — the short-lived name of Air India and Indian Airlines after the two were merged in 2007.

He has also been on the board of Alliance Air.

His appointment comes at a time when the government has decided to privatise AI and the modalities of the same are being worked out. That process will go on and the change of guard at AI will not impact the same, said sources.