Pawan Kumar Bansal is an Indian National Congress politician and a former minister in the Manmohan Singh government. He represented Chandigarh constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha of India. He served as Minister of Railways from 28 October 2012 to 10 May 2013. Bansal has represented Chandigarh as a member of Parliament in the 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabha. He has worked as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and the Minister of Water Resources in the current Lok Sabha. He also held the charge of the Minister of State for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs in the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet. He took over as the Railway Minister, becoming the first from his party since 1996. Soon after becoming Railways minister, he approved an increase in fares, which had been unchanged for the last 15 years, to allow the Indian Railways to be profitable. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Chandigarh.