NEW DELHI: Senior IAS officer Raghav Chandra has taken over as the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India NHAI ) today.Chandra succeeds Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber who was given the additional charge of the key post in June this year for three months after relinquishment of charge by former Chairman R P Singh on completion of his tenure."Raghav Chandra has taken over as Chairman, NHAI today. He is an IAS Officer of the 1982 batch Madhya Pradesh Cadre, who has held important positions in the central government and the Government of Madhya Pradesh," an official statement said.Chandra is a Post Graduate in Mathematics and also holds Post Graduate degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.Prior to his current assignment, Chandra was Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor for the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, ADF and Culture."He has vast experience in field of urban development, commerce, industry, human resource development, finance and infrastructure development. He has held various crucial assignments in roads & transport sector in various capacities," the statement said.Earlier, he had established and was the Managing Director of the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation and later Joint Secretary, Highways in Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.Appointment to the key post assumes significance as the government sharpens focus on augmenting infrastructure, especially building 30 km of roads a day in two years from about 15 km at present.Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has recently said that decision on the NHAI Chairman will be taken soon.Steps are also being taken to strengthen NHAI and a committee appointed in this regard had given report.According to information, more than three dozen candidates had applied for the top post including over a dozen secretaries and former bureaucrats.Before RP Singh, NHAI was headless for nearly two years as the position of full-time Chairman at NHAI fell vacant in August 2010 after the retirement of Brijeshwar Singh The government, inviting applications for the post, had said: "Chairman, NHAI is the Chief Executive of one of world's largest and most successful road development programme being carried out in India... Government of India seeks a professional who is dynamic, energetic, result-oriented and keen to play a key role in the development of national highways in India."A statutory body under the ministry, NHAI is entrusted with the task of implementing National Highways Development Project (NHDP), India's largest-ever highways project. The importance of the body can be gauged by the fact that it regulates 92,851 km of national highways across the country.