Fateh Chand Badhwar OBE (1900 – 10 October 1995) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

civil servant and the first Indian to become Chairman of the

Railway Board The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. The ministry operates the statutory body Indian Railways, an organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is h ...

Early life and education

Badhwar's father was an officer in the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

. He completed his schooling from

Sherwood College Sherwood College is a co-educational residential school in Nainital, Uttrakhand , India. It was established in 1869 and is affiliated to CISCE and IGCSE. History Sherwood was founded on 5 June 1869. It was the brain-child of Dr. Condon, H.S. ...

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

and later went on to study Mechanical Science

Tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

Career

Badhwar began his career as a marine engineer, working in several European countries on marine civil engineering projects after completing his engineering degree at Cambridge. In June 1925, he joined the

East Indian Railway The East Indian Railway Company, operating as the East Indian Railway (reporting mark EIR), introduced railways to East India and North India, while the Companies such as the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, South Indian Railway, Bombay, Barod ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

where he became one of the first Indian recruits in the technical services of the railways. In his early years in the railways he was assigned to several civil works including the laying of new lines and bridges and he had a stint at Liluah's Carriage and Wagons workshop. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Badhwar served with the Corps of Engineers where he rose to become a

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

. For his services to the war effort, Major Fateh Chand Badhwar, Commanding Officer of the Technical Group of the East Indian Railway was awarded the

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(Military) in 1942. He rejoined civil administration the following year and served variously as Secretary to the Railway Board, General Manager of the

Oudh and Tirhut Railway The Oudh and Tirhut Railway was a Railway company operated in India. History On 1 January 1943, the Bengal and North Western Railway and the Rohilkund and Kumaon Railway (R&K worked) were acquired by the Government of India and they were ama ...

and from 1949 on the Railway Board as Member Staff and then as Member Engineering. For his services, he was made an

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

OBE (Civil) in 1946. In 1951 he was appointed Chairman of the Railway Board — the first Indian to occupy that office which he held until his retirement in October 1954. As Chairman of the Railway Board, Badhwar oversaw the amalgamation of the various privately owned railways, government owned lines and those of the

princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

into the single organisation of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

. He was also a proponent of indigenisation of railway technology and used his technical skills and training to reduce India's railway imports from

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and to modernise the railways'

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

. This he achieved through the

Research Design and Standards Organisation The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) is an ISO 9001 research and development organisation under the Ministry of Railways of government of India, which functions as a technical adviser and consultant to the Railway Board, the Zonal ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

which was established during his term as Chairman of the Railway Board. As the Chairman of the Indian Railways, he was also part of high-powered committees to industrialise the newly independent India.

Later life

After his retirement, Badhwar served on the Board of Directors of Bird & Heilgers, Pvt. Ltd. He was also made Chairman of the Customs Inquiry Committee and the National Industrial Development Corporation. He helped reorganize the Ceylon Government Railway in the 1950s when he served in that country under the

Colombo Plan The Colombo Plan is a regional intergovernmental organization that began operations on 1 July 1951. The organization was conceived at an international conference, The Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs held in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri L ...

for two months. Badhwar was a nature enthusiast and mountaineer who served as President of the Delhi Bird Watchers Society and had a long association with The Himalayan Club of which he was the first Indian president between 1964-67. He also served as the Secretary of the Patiala-based Indian Society for Cultural Cooperation and Friendship. Badhwar died on October 10, 1995.

Honours

Badhwar was honoured by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

with a

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

in 1955. Badhwar Park, a railway residential colony in Mumbai's Colaba area has been named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badhwar, Fateh Chand 1900 births 1995 deaths Sherwood College alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Indian Railways officers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in civil service Indian civil servants Officers of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Order of the British Empire Chairpersons of the Railway Board