Indian Railways

Brief History of Indian Railways

• Started in 1853 from Mumbai to Thane with a distance of 34 KM
• Total of 1.6 Million employees and the second largest network in the world.
• Biggest network in Asia
• Mascot for Indian Railway – Bholu
• Railway Board is the highest in the railway heirarchy after the Railways Minister.
• Railway board has one chairman and 6 members for the following departments
• Traffic, Mechanical, Engineering, Electrical, Finance and Staff
• Present Railway Board chairman isJP Batra
• Previously, Railway board was under the Department of Commerce and Industry
• Railways has 16 Zones and 2 other special zones out of which 6 are newly created.
• Total of 67 Divisions are there in which 8 are newly added
• Computerisation was done in 1995
• IR was nationalised in 1951 . till then it was a private player mailny in the hands of the Great India Peninsular Railway
• In 1907, taken by the Govt. and formed the Indian Railways with 42 seperate Railways systems in differen princely states.
• Railway budget was started in 1924-25 year and it only needs a simple majority in the Lok sabha and the recommendations of the Rajya sabha are not binding
• But, the total Railway budget is again included in the union Budget.
• Parliamentary Convention Committee to review the financial policies

Zones:

• Central – Mumbai CST
• Western – Mumbai Church Gate
• Eastern – Kolkata
• Northern – New Delhi
• Southern – Chennai
• South Central – Secunderabad (1966)
• North Eastern – Gorakhpur
• North Eastern Frontier – Guwahati (Maligaon) (1958)
• South Eastern – Kolkata (1955)
• North Western – Jaipur (2002)
• South Western – Hubli (2003)
• South East Central – Bilaspur (2003)
• West Central – Jabalpur (2003)
• North Central – Allahabad (2003)
• East Coast – Bhuvaneshwar (2003)
• East Central – Hajipur (2002)
• Konkan Railway – Special Zone
• Kolkata Suburban Metro Railway – Special Zone

New Divisions added – Agra, Ahmedabad, Guntur, Nanded, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur, Rangia

27 states and 3 UT are connected through IR – the only state not connected with is Sikkim
Station to have all the three Guages – Siligudi

Meter gauge – 1000mm
Narrow gauge – 767 to 610 mm
Broad gauge – 1676 mm

6 Billion passengers and 750 million tonnes of Frieght
IR is the largest commercial Employer in the World.

Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee
Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee

Signalling Methods –

• Panel Inter locking
• Route Relay Inter locking – Delhi station has the largest Inter locking system
• Centralised Traffic Control (New)
• Automatic Signalling (New)
• Multi Aspect Color light Signaling (New)

PSUs under Railways:

• IRCTC – Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation
• RVNL – Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
• MRVNL – Mumbai Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
• IRCON International Ltd- Indian Railways Constructions Limited – has international presence
• CONCOR – Container Corporation of Railways
• RITES – Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd
• IRFC -Indian Railways Finance Corporation
• KRCL – Konkan Railway Corporation Limited
• Rail Tel – Railway Telecommunications
• DFCCI – Dedicated Frieght Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (Not under Ministry of Rail)
• Dedicated freight corridor for eastern region – it is the largest single railway program initiated after independence linking Ludhiana with north eastern states
• western – Jawahar lal Nehru prot with delhi
• CRIS – Center for Railway Information System – not a PSU but a registered society under the Railway board.
• Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow for R & D
• Central Organization for Rail Electrification – Allahabad
• Trans Asian Railway Project – the agreement was signed in Busan, South Korea by 17 countries. it is a 81000 KM railway passing through 28 countries. – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Camboodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazaksthan, Loas, Mongolia, Nepal, South Korea, Russia, SL, Tazaksthan, Thailand,Turkey, Uzbekinstan and Vietnam but passes through India
• India and SL – Indian railways is going to construct a 160 km route from Colombo to mathara – this is an Indian railways first foreign venture
• Bharatiya Rail Bijilee – jv between Indian Railways and NTPC – 26 and 74 %
• lal bahadur shastri was the first railway minister to resign form the cabinet following a train accident

Factories:

• Integrated Coach factory – (Perambur) Chennai – the first coach factory in India
• Rail Coach Factory – Kapurthala
• Diesel Locomotive Works – Varanasi – Collaboration with GM USA
• Chittaranjan Locomotives Works – Chittaranjan -Collaboration with ABB
• Diesel Loco-Modernisation Works – Patiala
• Wheel and Axle Plant – Bangalore
• Rail Spring Kharkhana – Gwalior

1. Mmbai Sub urban railway – one of the largest local train networks with seperate lanes.
2. Western, Central and Harbor are the divisions of he Mumbai Metro
3. Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknoe, Hyderabad and Pune has Metro Railways.
4. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway – World Heritage Site, Highest point in this is Ghum (7000Ft)
5. Starts at New Jalpaigudi (peviously Siligudi)- it is a narrow gauge
6. Nilgiri Mountain Railway – World Heritage Site – it is the only Rack Railway in India
7. CST – World Heritage Site
8. Kalka Shimla Railway – Guiness Book of Records for the steepest rise in altitude
9. Kharagpur – has the longest railway platform in the world
10. Ghum -Toy Train route in Darjeeling is the seccond highest in the world by a steam locomotive
11. Shortest name is lb and the longest name is Srivenkatanarasimharaajuvaripeta
12. Himsagar Express from Kanyakumari to Jammu Tawi is the longest both in distance and Duration (3745 Km) and 75 Hrs
13. Bhopal Shatabdi is the fastest train at present in India with 140 KMPH
14. Trivandrum Rajdhani has the longest one stop route from Vadodara to Kota
15. New Rail Coach Factory Coming up at Raebareli

Special Trains:

• Palance on Wheels (Rajasthan)
• Heritage on Wheels (Rajasthan)
• Deccan Odyssey – Maharashtra along the Konkan route
• Life Line Express – Hospital on wheels – 2 months at each station
• Fairy Queen -oldest Running Steam locomotive in the world.
• Thar Express – Khokhrapar (Pakistan) and Munabao (India)
• Samjhauta Express between New Delhi and Lahore through Atari
• Green Van for transporting fresh vegetables and food

1. National Rail Vikas Yojana – Rs 15000 Crores over the next five years
2. Special Railway Security Fund – Rs 17000 crore and non-lapsable
3. Railway security – Railway protection Force and Government Reserve Force.
4. National Train Enquiery System
5. Freight Operations Information System
6. Railnet -Intranet for Railways
7. Anti Collision Device ACD – Innovation from Konkan Railways
8. Indo Austria MOU on State of the Art system for Railways
9. Dr. Themplangad suid a case against the Sanitation facilities in Railways.

Steam engines:

• Fairy Queen old’s oldest coal locomotive
• Pavan dhoot
• Raj hans – War class locomotive
• Sher e punjab
• shahenshah

Kalyan

Kalyan co-founded WorthView in 2008 alongside Sethuram. A successful UPSC Civil Services Examination candidate, he writes the site’s IAS Civils content from firsthand experience — covering exam preparation, cadre allocation, foundation-course training, and life as an officer trainee, including insights from an administrative study tour to Singapore. Off the page, he’s a tennis enthusiast and film buff.