NHAI chairman Deepak Kumar prematurely repatriated; is Kumar the new Bihar chief secretary?

Deepak Kumar

IN A major bureaucratic reshuffle, the government on Wednesday prematurely repatriated chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and 1984 batch Bihar cadre IAS, Deepak Kumar, to his parent cadre with “immediate effect”. By the same order, Kumar was replaced by Yudhvir Singh Malik, who will hold the NHAI chairman’s post in addition to…

discharging his duty as the secretary of the ministry of road transport and highways. Singh is 1983 batch Haryana cadre IAS. Outgoing chairman Kumar is a B Tech in civil engineering and MTech (Management and System) from IIT Delhi. He got a tenure of just 11 months.

Before joining the NHAI, Kumar worked as Director General, ESIC, which comes under the ministry of labour and employment.

The sudden exit of Kumar is significant as the NHAI was aggressively monetising public highways through auctioning. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had earlier said that the Centre would monetise 105 highway projects in various phases that could eventually fetch Rs 1.5 lakh crore. In October last year, 9 stretches of roads spreading five highways were auctioned and monetised. Those were located in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. A large chunk of the remaining was to take place anytime soon. 

Some reports suggest that Kumar could be the next Bihar chief secretary.

In fact, incumbent Bihar chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, a 1981 batch IAS, turned 60 years in the month of February, but he was given a three-month-extension which is ending this month.