Indian Railway.

Indian Railway.


After the massacre of 1857, the English speeded up construction of
Broad gauge railway lines for easy transportation. Delhi was linked
with Bombay Madras Calcutta and all other major cities were linked by rail.
First railway in India was in the year 1853 between VT and Thane.
On April 16th, at 3:35pm, the first train in India left Bombay for Thane.
Initial scheduled services consisted of two trains each way between Bombay and Thane and later Bombay and Mahim via Dadar. The first railway link between Bombay Delhi was in 1886.

Indian Railways is divided into zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions.
Each zonal railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each having a divisional headquarters, at important cities.
The Kolkata, Delhi Metro is owned and operated by Indian Railways, but is not a part of any of the zones. It is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.
Each of the zones, as well as the Kolkata and Delhi Metro, is headed by a General Manager (GM) 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 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 the train movement through the track territory under their stations' administration.

With approximately 1.6 million employees, Indian Railways is the country's single largest employer Staff are classified into gazetted Group A and B and non-gazetted Group C and D employees The recruitment of Group A & B gazetted employees is carried out by the Union Public Service Commission through exams conducted by it.




Indian Railways manufactures much of its rolling stock and heavy engineering components at its six manufacturing plants, called Production Units, which are managed directly by the ministry. As with most developing economies, the main reason for this was the policy of import substitution of expensive technology related products when the general state of the national engineering industry was immature. Each of these six production units is headed by a General Manager, who also reports directly to the Railway Board.
There exist independent organizations under the control of the Railway Board for electrification modernization and research and design each of which is headed by a General Manager. A number of Public Sector Undertakings which perform railway-related functions ranging from consultancy to ticketing are also under the administrative control of the Ministry of railways.
The total length of track used by Indian Railways was about 69,300 miles while the total route length of the network was 39,316 miles on 31 March 2010.




Broad gauge is the predominant gauge used by Indian Railways.
The Kalka-Shimla Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are three notable hill lines that use narrow gauge.



Indian Railways operates about 9,000 passenger trains and transports 20 million passengers daily across twenty-eight states and two union territories Sikkim Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya are the only states not connected by rail. A standard passenger train consists of eighteen coaches but popular trains can have up to 26 coaches.



Coaches are designed to accommodate anywhere from 18 to 108 passengers, but during the holiday seasons and/or on busy routes, more passengers may travel in unreserved coaches. Most regular trains have coaches connected through vestibules However; 'unreserved coaches' are not connected with the rest of the train via any vestibule.



Reservation against cancellation service is a provision for shared berth in case the travel ticket is not confirmed


In air-conditioned sleeper classes passengers are provided with sheets, pillows and blankets. Meals and refreshments are provided, to all the passengers of reserved classes, either through the on-board pantry service or through special catering arrangements in trains without pantry car. Unreserved coach passengers have options of purchasing from licensed vendors either on board or on the platform of intermediate stops.
The amenities depend on the popularity and length of the route. Lavatories are communal and feature both the Indian style as well as the Western style.


The Palace on Wheels is a specially designed train, frequently hauled by a steam locomotive, for promoting tourism in Rajasthan. On the same lines, the Maharashtra government introduced the Deccan Odyssey covering various tourist destinations in Maharashtra and Goa, and was followed by the Government of Karnataka which introduced the Golden Chariot train connecting popular tourist destinations in Karnataka and Goa. However, neither of them has been able to enjoy the popular success of the Palace on Wheels.
The Samjhauta Express is a train that runs between India and Pakistan. However, hostilities between the two nations in 2001 saw the line being closed. It was reopened when the hostilities subsided in 2004. Another train connecting Khokhrapar (Pakistan) and Munabao (India) is the Thar Express that restarted operations on February 18, 2006; it was earlier closed down after the 1965 Indo-Pak war. The Kalka Shimla Railway till recently featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometre.