The Andhra Pradesh Government appointed former Chairman & Managing Director of Air India Ashwani Lohani as the Chairman of the AP Tourism Development Corporation, assigning him the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
The appointment is for a period of one year, according to an order issued by Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney. A retired officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, Lohani had previously served as CMD of India Tourism Development Corporation and also Chairman of Railway Board.
The AP Government expects Lohani’s experience in varied sectors would help harness the tourism potential of the state. He is the second former bureaucrat brought in from New Delhi for a key post in the state, with the rank of a Cabinet minister, after former Union Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
Garg was early this month appointed as an advisor (resource mobilisation) to the Chief Minister with a Cabinet rank for a two-year period.
Earlier, in 2001 he joined India Tourism Development Corporation as Chairman and Managing Director. In 2004 he also became Commissioner and Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, a position that he held for almost six years in three different spells.
