Anoop Kumar Agrawal, managing director, Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited (IPRCL), has held this post for over a year. IPRCL was incorporated as a special purpose vehicle under the Companies Act, 2013, in order to execute last-mile rail connectivity and internal rail projects of the major ports more effectively and efficiently. Incorporated under the administrative control of the Ministry of Shipping, it is a joint venture between the major ports and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL). The purpose of the company is to provide efficient rail evacuation systems to the major ports for enhancing their cargo handling capacity, efficiency and throughput.
Agrawal started his career with Indian Railways in March 1989 and has been in the senior administrative grade (joint secretary level) since August 2008. Prior to joining IPRCL, he was group general manager at RVNL, Mumbai, from August 2010 to May 2016.
Agrawal has a B.Tech degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where he earned a first class degree. He took several short courses during 2004-08 on financial management and project finance from INSEAD, Singapore, and the Railway Staff College, Vadodara. Besides, he has attended several courses on project management and transport infrastructure at the Project Management Institute and on contract procurement and management conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
He has also undergone training in the design and planning of suburban metro railway networks (2005-06) in Toronto and London, strategic management in Singapore and Malaysia (2006-07) and high speed bullet train technology in France and Morocco (June 2015).
Agrawal has been involved in several projects including the planning and execution of port connectivity railway projects, development projects at Dahej and Dighi ports, port connectivity projects at Rewas and Nandgaon ports, the Palanpur-Gandhidham line doubling project, railway capacity enhancement works in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the ADB-funded Mumbai-Chennai line doubling of the railway network on the Daund-Gulbarga section and the World Bank-funded Borivali-Virar line quadrupling on the Mumbai suburban rail network.
He has also presented papers at national and international seminars on various topics related to rail infrastructure, including rail connectivity to Indian ports.