Piyush Goyal to be new railway minister, claims Times Now report

Almost an hour before the big Cabinet rejig, according to Times Now, power minister Piyush Goyal was handed the Railways portfolio, replacing Suresh Prabhu who had offered to resign after a spate of train accidents in the last one year.

The Opposition had gunned for Prabhu after the Kalinga Utkal Express accident this month. The train accident at Khatauli in western UP on August 19 that killed 23 people was followed by revelations of appalling negligence by railway staff. Last Wednesday, 74 people were injured when 12 coaches of the Azamgarh-Delhi Kaifiyat Express derailed in UP's Auraiya district after hitting a dumper.

The two accidents have already claimed one high-profile scalp — railway board chairman A K Mittal stepped down following a nudge from the government. He has been replaced with Ashwani Lohani, chairman and managing director of Air India, who is originally from the Indian Railway Mechanical Engineering department.