lucknow his uncles stint with territorial army and his fascination for the army fatigues drove this 44yearold unnao railway official to do something differentmeet lt col prashant kumar singh the indian railway service of mechanical engineer irsme who is currently deputy director general of uidai lucknow regioncoming from a family who has given two chairpersons of indian railway board including ravinder kumar singh 200305 and ashwani lohani 201718 prashant was commissioned in the indian railways in 2001 he left the opportunity to graduate from iit roorkee in electronics and computers to appear for scra special class railway apprentice in order to train in the undergraduate program in mechanical engineering at the indian railways institute of mechanical and electrical engineering irimee jamalpurduring his first posting in lucknows alambagh diesel locomotive shed he was credited for minimizing the breakdown of diesel loco crank shaft and for this he became the countrys youngest railway officer to receive rail mantri award in 2005later in april 2006 he joined indian territorial army ta wing of railways engineers regiment on october 9 ta is celebrating its 73rd anniversaryi was inspired by my uncle ravinder kumar singh who retired as tas colonel during my teenage days i always wondered how come a railway officer dons an indian army uniform and commands men so in 2004 i applied for ta but due to an official tour to switzerland and germany for lhb coaches technology transfer official i couldnt join in 2006 i succeeded said prashant who was director operations for rdso lucknow as wellthe discipline and working style of ta immensely helped me during trial of the countrys fastest train train18 which is now better known as vande bharat express my team completed the threemonth trials in just 30 days we used to work continuously 14 hours a day and planned everything like a military strategy in fact for the doubledecker train my team conducted trials for 25 hours nonstop said prashant who also conducted trials of spanish train talgo doubledecker train countrys fastest and powerful 12000hp electric locomotive 25 ton gondola wagon and metro trains of eight cities including lucknow delhi magenta and aqua line ncr dlf metro chennai bengaluru and hyderabadhe said ta prepares us to take the responsibility of internal security in times of crisis and provides support to the regular army when needed there are six railway regiments in ta based in jamalpur jhansi kota adra chandigarh and secunderabad whose basic function is to operate train services for indian defense forces during the state of war or emergencyfather of two daughters prashant as deputy director general of uidai lucknow region is credited for initiating aadhaar verification program which helped in recovery of over 100 missing children and two dozen women including the mentally challengedprashant said i had a great run as an army and railway officer and continue to follow my passion to explore things in various fields he is the first officer of railways who was recommended for general managers award by