Sanjiv Narain Mathur Given Additional Charge of Secretary, Railway Board

Sanjiv Narain Mathur, currently serving as Additional Member (Budget) on the Railway Board, has been given additional charge of the post of Secretary, Railway Board. Mathur is an officer of the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS).

The Railway Board is the apex decision-making body of the Indian Railways, and the Secretary's post is a key administrative charge responsible for coordinating the Board's policy and administrative functions, including liaison with the Ministry of Railways and other Central government departments on matters requiring Board-level clearance.

As Additional Member (Budget), Mathur's substantive role involves overseeing the Railways' budgetary planning and financial allocation across zones and production units, a function that gives him direct oversight of the financial dimension of most Board-level decisions even before this additional assignment.

IRAS officers are trained specifically in railway finance and accounts, and it is common for senior officers from the service to hold Board-level Member posts covering budget and finance functions, given the scale of the Railways' annual capital and revenue expenditure.

Holding the Secretary's charge in addition to the Budget portfolio places Mathur at the centre of both the financial and administrative coordination functions of the Railway Board simultaneously, a combination that is not unusual when a vacancy at the Secretary level needs to be filled on an interim basis.

The additional charge arrangement is expected to continue until a dedicated appointment is made to the Secretary's post, a common practice at the Railway Board when Member-level officers are asked to cover an additional portfolio during a transition period.

The order assigning the additional charge takes immediate effect, according to the Railway Board's notification.

The Railway Board's structure comprises a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer along with several full-time Members and Additional Members, each holding charge of a specific functional area such as Operations and Business Development, Infrastructure, Rolling Stock, or Finance, with the Secretary's post functioning as the administrative link between the Board and the wider Ministry of Railways establishment.

Additional charge arrangements at senior levels of the Railway Board are typically resorted to when a permanent appointee has not yet been identified or cleared through the usual empanelment process, allowing the Board to maintain continuity in its administrative functions without an extended vacancy at a post that handles time-sensitive coordination work.

The Secretary's office also handles the Board's interface with Parliamentary Committees, RTI-related coordination and other statutory and procedural requirements that fall outside the direct operational or financial mandates handled by the Board's other Members, making it a role with broad administrative reach across the organisation.

Mathur's combined charge comes at a time when the Railway Board continues to manage a heavy annual capital expenditure programme spanning network expansion, safety upgrades and rolling stock procurement, work that requires close coordination between the budget function he already oversees and the administrative coordination handled through the Secretary's office.

IRAS officers typically build their careers through postings at divisional and zonal finance offices before moving into Board-level Member and Additional Member roles, a progression that gives officers reaching senior Railway Board positions an extended grounding in the financial operations of the network before they take on broader administrative responsibilities of the kind now assigned to Mathur.

The dual charge is expected to remain a transitional arrangement, with the Railway Board typically moving to fill such vacancies with a dedicated appointment once the process for identifying a permanent Secretary is completed.