New GM for S Rly
S Vishnu Sharmaa, INN/Chennai, @Svs037
There has been a change of authority at the top level for Southern Railway. John Thomas, a 1982 batch of Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) has taken charge as new General Manager of Southern Railway on 19 September.
John Thomas completed his graduation (B.Sc.,) in Electrical Engineering with honours at Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.
He started his career in Indian Railways in 1984 and in over three decades of service, has held several important assignments in Central Railway, South Central Railway and Southern Railway.
Prior to his present posting, John Thomas served as additional general manager, South Central Railway. During his stint there he has initiated various innovative measures towards handling issues concerning public grievances, review of zonal performance on critical aspects as safety, security, punctuality, operational efficiency and business.
He was also instrumental in handling the massive relief measures undertaken by South Central Railway to render succor to victims of floods in Kerala in 2018, intensively coordinating the entire operations from all over the Zone.
Prior to this, he was chief electrical engineer of South Central Railway where he led the zone to achieve national level recognition in energy conservation, enabling the Zone to earn a record of nine national energy conservation awards for 2016 from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power and Government of India.
He has also been instrumental in initiating efforts towards better work efficiency and boosting work force morale among the Loco running staff of the Zone.
Amongst the other important assignments he has held are – Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Chennai Division, Chief Electrical Traction Engineer, Chief Electrical Loco Engineer and Chief Safety Officer in Southern Railway; Divisional Railway Manager, Solapur Division, Central Railway, Chief Electrical Engineer, South Central Railway and Chief Project Manager, Railway Electrification, Chennai.
John Thomas has travelled widely for training and study programmes abroad that include training in design of power converters for 3-phase ABB locos at Turgi and Zurich, Oerlikon and Switzerland.