Central Railway GM Vijay Kumar passes away

Mumbai, Nov 11 (PTI) Central Railway (CR) General Manager Vijay Kumar, who assumed charge just over a month ago, passed away in Mumbai in the early hours of Tuesday, officials said.

He was 59.

Preliminary medical opinion suggested a possible cardiac arrest in sleep as the cause of death, but the exact cause will be ascertained after the post-mortem examination, railway officials said.

Kumar was rushed to the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, where doctors declared him dead, a CR spokesperson said.

Kumar, an officer of the 1988 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), assumed charge as the General Manager of the CR on October 1, 2025.

Railway officials said the last rites will be performed on Wednesday morning at the Chandanwadi crematorium in Marine Lines in south Mumbai.

Before moving to the CR, Kumar served as the general manager of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), where he led the production of a record 700 locomotives in 2024-25. The CLW has already dispatched 417 locomotives in the first six months towards an ambitious target of 777, during the current financial year, as per the officials.

Over his 35-year career, Kumar held several key posts across the Indian Railways, including in the Railway Board, Northern Railway, North Western Railway and Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

He had also contributed to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) as executive director and director (rolling stock).

Kumar played a role in the semi-high-speed corridor development and supervised speed trials of the Spanish-designed Talgo trains during his stint in the Railway Board, the officials said.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

"Central Railway mourns the loss of a noble soul, an efficient administrator, and an inspiring leader whose contributions to Indian Railways will always be remembered amongst us," the CR said in a release.

Meanwhile, Western Railway (WR) General Manager Vivek Kumar Gupta was given the additional charge of CR general manager in the wake of Vijay Kumar's death.

Gupta, who is an officer of the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) of the 1988 batch, took over the charge as the CR general manager. PTI KK GK NP