Raghu Menon, special secretary and financial advisor in the civil aviation ministry, has been appointed the chairman and managing director of Air India, ending weeks of speculation over the issue.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the name of Menon, a 1974 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Nagaland cadre, after a keen race for the top job in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs the merged national carrier.

There were a total of 51 aspirants for the post. Menon, who was appointed as a joint secretary in the ministry in October 2002, takes over from V Thulasidas, a Tripura cadre IAS officer who retires on March 31. The post of

NACIL CMD is at par with the rank of additional secretary in the government. Menon has earlier served in the information and broadcasting ministry as well.

The race for the top job at Air India also included the airline's present joint MD Vishwapati Trivedi, besides Arvind Mayaram of the Department of Economic Affairs and Arvind Jadhav, chief vigilance officer of the Gas Authority of India Limited.

Names of several secretary and additional secretary level officials had been doing the rounds for the past several weeks for the top job of Air India.

Speculation was also rife that Thulasidas could be given an extension of three months to oversee the continuing process of amalgamation of the two public sector carriers following their merger.