History[edit]
Main article: History of rail transport in India
India's first train run between Bombay and Thane
The B.B. & C.I. Railway Head Offices, 1905
Extent of the railway network in 1909.
Indian Railways headquarters, Delhi
Robert-Maitland-Brereton
Map of the completed and planned railway lines in India in 1871, thirteen years after the
end of Company rule.
The history of rail transport in India began in the mid-nineteenth century.
The core of the pressure for building Railways In India came from London.
In 1848, there was not a single kilometre of railway line in India. The
country's first railway, built by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR),
opened in 1853, between Bombay and Thane. [8] A British engineer, Robert
Maitland Brereton, was responsible for the expansion of the railways from
1857 onwards. The Allahabad-Jabalpur branch line of the East Indian
Railway had been opened in June 1867. Brereton was responsible for
linking this with the GIPR, resulting in a combined network of 6,400 km
(4,000 mi). Hence it became possible to travel directly from Bombay to
Calcutta. This route was officially opened on 7 March 1870 and it was part
of the inspiration for French writer Jules Verne's book Around the World in
Eighty Days. At the opening ceremony, the Viceroy Lord Mayo concluded
that "it was thought desirable that, if possible, at the earliest possible
moment, the whole country should be covered with a network of lines in a
uniform system".[9]
By 1875, about 95 million were invested by British companies in India.
Guaranteed railways.[10] By 1880 the network had a route mileage of about
14,500 km (9,000 mi), mostly radiating inward from the three major port
cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. By 1895, India had started building
its own locomotives, and in 1896, sent engineers and locomotives to help
build the Uganda Railways.
In 1900, the GIPR became a government owned company. The network
spread to the modern day states of Ahom Kingdom, Rajputhana and
Madras Presidency and soon various autonomous kingdoms began to have
their own rail systems. In 1905, an early Railway Board was constituted, but
the powers were formally vested under Lord Curzon.[11] It served under the
Department of Commerce and Industry and had a government railway
official serving as chairman, and a railway manager from England and an
agent of one of the company railways as the other two members. For the
first time in its history, the Railways began to make a profit.
In 1907 almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government.
The following year, the first electric locomotive made its appearance. With
the arrival of World War I, the railways were used to meet the needs of the
British outside India. With the end of the war, the railways were in a state of
disrepair and collapse. Large scale corruption by British officials involved in
the running of these railways companies was rampant. Profits were never
reinvested in the development of British colonial India.[12]
In 1920, with the network having expanded to 61,220 km (38,040 mi),[13] a
need for central management was mooted by Sir William Acworth. Based
on the East India Railway Committee chaired by Acworth, the government
took over the management of the Railways and detached the finances of
the Railways from other governmental revenues.
The period between 1920 and 1929, was a period of economic boom; there
were 41,000 mi (66,000 km) of railway lines serving the country; the
railways represented a capital value of some 687 million sterling; and they
carried over 620 million passengers and approximately 90 million tons of
goods each year.[14] Following the Great Depression, the railways suffered
economically for the next eight years. The Second World War severely
crippled the railways. Starting 1939, about 40% of the rolling stock including
locomotives and coaches was taken to the Middle East, the railways
workshops were converted to ammunitions workshops and many railway
tracks were dismantled to help the Allies in the war. By 1946, all rail
systems had been taken over by the government.
Organisational structure[edit]
Indian Railway zonal map.
Main article: Indian Railway organisational structure
Railway zones[edit]
Further information: Zones and divisions of Indian Railways
Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones,[15] which are further sub-divided
into divisions. The number of zones in Indian Railways increased from six
to eight in 1951, nine in 1952 and seventeen in 2003. [16][17] Each zonal
railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each having a
divisional headquarters. There are a total of sixty-eight divisions. [18][19]
Each zone is headed by a general manager, who reports directly to the
Railway Board. The zones are further divided into divisions, under the
control of divisional railway managers (DRM). The divisional officers, of
engineering, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecommunication,
accounts, personnel, operating, commercial, security and safety branches,
report to the respective Divisional Manager and are in charge of operation
and maintenance of assets. Further down the hierarchy tree are the station
masters, who control individual stations and train movements through the
track territory under their stations' administration.
S
r
Name
Ab
br.
Date
Establish
ed
Rou
te
km
Headquarte
rs
Divisions
Southern SR
14 April 1951 5098
Chennai
Chennai, Tiruchirappalli,
and Salem,[20] Palakkad,
Thiruvananthapuram
Central
5 November
1951
Mumbai
Mumbai CST, Bhusawal
Solapur and Nagpur
CR
3905
Western
WR
5 November
1951
6182
Mumbai
Mumbai Central, Ratlam
Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bha
Indore, Surendranagar a
Vadodara
Eastern
ER
14 April 1952 2414
Kolkata
Howrah, Sealdah, Asans
Malda Town
Northern NR
14 April 1952 6968
Delhi
Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur,
Moradabad and Udhamp
North
Eastern
NER
14 April 1952 3667
Gorakhpur
Izzatnagar, Lucknow and
South
Eastern
SER
1955
2631
Kolkata
Adra, Chakradharpur, Kh
and Ranchi
Northeas
NFR
t Frontier
15 January
1958
3907
Guwahati
Alipurduar, Katihar, Ran
Lumding and Tinsukia
South
Central
SCR
2 October
1966
5951
Secunderabad
Vijayawada, Secunderab
Guntakal, Guntur, Hyder
Nanded
10
East
Central
ECR
1 October
2002
3628
Hajipur
Danapur, Dhanbad, Mug
Samastipur and Sonpur
11
North
Western
NWR
1 October
2002
5459
Jaipur
Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner a
12
East
Coast
ECoR 1 April 2003
2677
Bhubaneswar
Khurda Road, Sambalpu
Visakhapatnam
13
North
Central
NCR
1 April 2003
3151
Allahabad
Allahabad, Agra and Jha
14
South
East
Central
SECR 1 April 2003
2447
Bilaspur
Bilaspur, Raipur and Na
15
South
Western
SWR
1 April 2003
3177
Hubli
Hubli, Bangalore and My
16
West
Central
WCR
1 April 2003
2965
Jabalpur
Jabalpur, Bhopal and Ko
A pantograph on an IR
Recruitment
training[edit]
and
train.
Main article:
Centralised
Training Institutes
of the Indian
Railways
Staff are classified into gazetted (Group 'A' and 'B') and non-gazetted
(Group 'C' and 'D') employees.[21] The recruitment of Group 'A' gazetted
employees is carried out by the Union Public Service Commission through
exams conducted by it.[22] The recruitment to Group 'C' and 'D' employees
on the Indian Railways is done through 20 Railway Recruitment Boards and
Railway Recruitment Cells which are controlled by the Railway Recruitment
Control Board (RRCB).[23] The training of all cadres is entrusted and shared
between six centralised training institutes.