Mumbai: MIT scholar takes over as new Western Railway CPRO

Vineet Abhishek took over as WR CPRO on June 10/ Sourced Photo

Vineet Abhishek, an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) Officer of the 2010 Civil Services batch, assumed the charge of the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the Western Railway on June 10.

A management graduate, Vineet Abhishek has over 19 years of experience in urban planning & transportation and has straddled public, corporate and non-profit sectors. As the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Mumbai Central Division of WR, Vineet Abhishek led multiple initiatives of ticket-checking and on-fare revenue of the division breached the Rs 4,000 crore mark in 2023-2024 for the first time in its history.

How this Bandra bookstall is keeping the tradition of newspaper reading alive

1 year agoPHOTO GALLERY

Vineet pursued higher studies and research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA during the years 2019-2020 and 2021-2023, where along with cross-registration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, he specialised in sustainable transportation, infrastructure planning, municipal financing, budgeting and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

At MIT, he held various fellowships like the Hubert H Humphrey Fulbright fellowship, JN Tata Fellowship and MIT's Governance Innovation Research Fellowship.

During his higher studies, Vineet participated in various on-site projects - namely the TOD project with Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Urban Transport Financing Project with ITDP Africa, Chennai City Partnership Project with the World Bank, Public Bus Electrification Project with Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority and Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) + International Association of Public Transport (UITP).

Between June and August 2023, he was in Brazil as the MIT Gov/Lab fellow on a joint-collaborative project with the country's Ministry of Governance and Innovation (MGI) to research the civil services reforms in the country, stated a communique by Western Railway.

Before joining civil services, Vineet, over six years, worked on multiple projects dealing with industrial competitiveness, social infrastructure, government consultancy, project financing and CSR in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Beyond his professional engagements, Vineet is an avid commentator on sustainable transportation and public policy issues, and his research papers, editorials and book reviews have been published in Economic and Political Weekly, Hindustan Times, The Hindu etc.