1. Career landmarks of Mr.Rajeev Bhargava
 Innovation
East Central Railway
I Mid-way during the construction of the 5 KM long Ganga Rail Bridge at Patna
and completeion of 50% of well foundations 63 meters deep, he assumed
charge. His academic brilliance, spirit of innovation and risk taking abilities
again came to the fore. He conceived a design for the remaining well
foundations which were only 51 meters deep and more importantly convert the
Rail Bridge into a Rail cum Road Bridge as the existing road bridge was
dilapitated – all without compromising safety. The PMO approved the decision
in 8 months and because it was now a dual bridge, accorded the status of a
National Project.
Ii Similarly, changes were made by him in design during construction of 2 mega
bridges on Ganga at Munger and Kosi where depth of foundation for part of the
bridges was substantially reduced and optimised.
Rail Wheel Factory
I A serious issue of non availibilty of scrap for manufacturing wheels. This was
a very vexed matter as it would lead to consequent shutdown of RWF, which is
the only factory in India, and result in imports of wheels. When things were at
wits end, a solution to this vexed problem was found by original, innovative
and courageous thinking, courage of conviction, and a change in the raw
material mix without compromising safety. For the first time, condemned rails,
which were being auctioned as unusable scrap, were added in the mix as major
scrap. Now the factory will never come to stop for want of scrap.
Ii Introduced a new computerised tracking system in February 2014 to identify
causes of rejection, improve the manufacturing process to address these issues
and thereby improve quality and reduce rejections from 6% to 4 % -
effectively increased production.
Iii Reduced the plant annual maintenance time from 21 to 14 days and effectively
added number of working days by 3% further adding to productivity.*
Metro Railway Kolkata
I Took a bold decision to dispense with Empty pilot trains, which were a safety

2. measure/protocol/drill in force in Kolkata Metro for decades, as redudant and a
myth because of in-built safety and integrity of design and systems. Without
compromising safety, these were stopped and run as commercial service which
extended the service timings.
Ii Metro had no lifts for underground stations. Identified four underground
stations, froze design and issued tenders for providing lift from surface to
concourse and concourse to platform level.
 Turnaround
East Central Railway
In the 10 years immediately preceeding his taking charge, only 68 Kms of
railway lines were constructed. Against this environment and pace of
construction of railway lines, in his 3 year tenure 325 Kms of railway lines
were constructed and commissioned and 200 Kms were ready for
commissioning in next one year thereafter.
Rail Wheel Factory
Received two international awards in 2013-14 for increased and sustained
production above plant capacity and quality. Set the vision and enthused staff
to capture export market.
Metro Railway Kolkata
Worked out the entire operational methodology for new lines and their stabling
plan & development of maintenance facilities. Construction works worth
Rs 1600 Crores are lying idle for various reasons beyond the Railways control.
Devised a plan to prioritize further construction work only in areas/sectors
where they could be completed and commissioned in a time bound manner even
by deferring the works worth Rs 3000 crores and more importantly
operationalize the Airport metro station.
 Solution Provider
Expediting construction projects
Ensured that projects are well planned, well implemented and completed in a
timely manner by reviewing design parameters during execution, by innovating
material and manpower management and thus ensuring completion of
construction projects with quality and with no cost and time over-runs. For

3. successful completion and commissioning of a railway line, the important
bridges must be completed within time. Important bridges with proper planning
and monitoring can be constructed in 3 working seasons. Activities such as
earth work etc. can follow. Design based on thumb rule must be released so that
all mobilisations start and the contractor for bridges has no excuses for delay.
Authored Manual as One Man Expert Commission for Indian Railways
Permanent Way and the global tender for the same work was cancelled.
Appointed as a One Man Expert Committee to suggest measures to reduce
track failures.
Streamlined detection of defects in rail & welds. Reduced rail and weld
fractures by setting standards for track maintenance and renewal. This was done
by correlating poor track parameters as recorded by track recording car and
internal defects as detected by USFD.
Having written technical notes on in-depth understanding on fundamentals of
track modulus, elastic fastening & high speed, entrusted responsibility of
writing Permanent Way Manual for operation and maintenance of Railway
tracks as one man committee. Written 29 articles on all aspects of safety and
high speed . The Manual, technical notes and 29 Articles assume even greater
importance in the era of high speed trains.
Streamlining railway operations
In SW Rly serious bottlenecks in operation of trains in the Castle Rock-Qulem
and Skaleshpur-Subramanya Road sections were studied. These are
geographically the toughest sections of Indian Railway. Proposed solution to
increase the throughput from 6 – 8 rakes per day to 12 rakes without additional
investment. Re-engineered operation by optimising utilisation of crew, engine
runs and judicious planning of train operation.
Re engineering raw materials in RWF
In RWF implemented comprehensive improvements in raw materials and their
quality by upgrading the specifications, improving suppliers manufacturing
processes and tightening inspection practices.