Senior IAS officer Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Monday took over as the chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Sandhu succeeds Nagendra Nath Sinha, who has been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Border Management.

“Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu has taken over as Chairman, NHAI, today.  He is an IAS Officer of 1988 batch Uttarakhand cadre, who has held important positions in the Central Government and the Government of Uttarakhand, Government of Uttar Pradesh and Government of Punjab,” NHAI said in a statement.

Sandhu was Additional Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development. He has done his MBBS from Government Medical College, Amritsar and Master’s Degree in History from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and he is also a law graduate.

“He has vast experience in field of State roads, infrastructure development, PPP projects, finance, urban development, environment, health & family welfare, tourism, revenue administration, rural development, power, new & renewable energy, information technology, industries and science & technology,” the statement said.

Besides, he has been a regular speaker at LBSNAA, Mussorie and had also delivered a talk on ‘De-stressing Indian Cities’ at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, on invitation. He has also published papers on ‘Urban Reforms’ and ‘Municipal Management and Capacity Building’.

He was conferred President Medal in recognition of his services as Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, Punjab. Prior to his current assignment, he looked after technical education, which includes IITs, NITs, IIITs, SPAs, Teacher Education Quality Improvement Programme- a World Bank project and was also the Chief Vigilance Officer of Ministry of Human Resource Development.