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Indian Railways At a Glance

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Dear Readers,we have collected some important information about Indian Railways. We hope, it will help you in Competitive exams.

Railways

Indian Railways  is an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is one of the world’s largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km and 7,112 stations.

  • Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Mumbai to Thane
  • Indian Railways Nationalised in 1951
  • The country’s first railway, built by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway
  • The Indian railway system is the largest in Asia and fourth in the world based on rail transport network size after USA, China and Russia
  • It is the biggest employer in the world and the largest single undertaking in the country
  • It has the second biggest electrified system in the world after Russia
  • Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones.which are further sub-divided into 68 divisions
  • Each zone is headed by a general manager

Railway Zones

NameEstablishedHeadquartersDivisions
Southern14 April 1951ChennaiChennai, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, and Salem, Palakkad,Thiruvananthapuram
Central5 November 1951MumbaiMumbai,CST, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur and
Nagpur
Western5 November 1951MumbaiMumbai,Central, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot,
Bhavnagar and Vadodara
Eastern14 April 1952KolkataHowrah, Sealdah, Asansol and Malda Town
Northern14 April 1952DelhiDelhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow and
Moradabad
North Eastern14 April 1952GorakhpurIzzatnagar, Lucknow and Varanasi
South Eastern1955KolkataAdra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur and Ranchi
Northeast Frontier15 January 1958MaligaonAlipurduar, Katihar, Rangia, Lumding and
Tinsukia
South Central2 October 1966SecunderabadVijayawada, Secunderabad, Guntakal, Guntur,
Hyderabad and Nanded
East Central1 October 2002HajipurDanapur, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur
and  Sonpur
North Western1 October 2002JaipurJaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur
East Coast1 April 2003BhubaneswarKhurda Road, Sambalpur and Visakhapatnam
North Central1 April 2003AllahabadAllahabad, Agra and Jhansi
South East Central1 April 2003BilaspurBilaspur, Raipur and Nagpur
South Western1 April 2003HubliHubli, Bangalore, Mysore and Gulbarga
West Central1 April 2003JabalpurJabalpur, Bhopal and Kota

Railway Tracks:

  • Track – Distance between rails
  • Broad Gauge – 1676mm
  • Metre Gauge – 1000mm
  • Narrow Gauge – 762mm/610mm

Manufacturing Unit

Name of the UnitLocation
Chittaranjan Locomotive WorksChittaranjan, West Bengal
Central Organisation for Railway ElectrificationAllahabad, UP
Diesel Locomotive WorksVaranasi, UP
Diesel Loco Modernisation WorksPatiala, Punjab
Integral Coach FactoryChennai, Tamil Nadu
Rail Coach FactoryKapurthala, Punjab
Rail Wheel FactoryBangalore, Karnataka
Rail Coach FactoryRaebareli, UP
Rail Wheel PlantChhapra, Bihar
Diesel Component FactoryDankuni, West Bengal

Luxury Train routes

NameRun byRoute
Palace on WheelsRajasthan TourismDelhi-Jaipur-Sawai-Madhopur-Chittorgarh-Udaipur-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Bharatpur-Agra-Delhi
Deccan OdysseyMaharashtra TourismNew Delhi – Sawai Madhopur – Agra – Jaipur – Udaipur – Vadodara – Ellora Caves – Mumbai
The Golden ChariotKarnataka TourismBengaluru, Kabini, Mysore-Belur – Halebidu – Hampi – Badami –Goa – Bengaluru
Royal Rajasthan on WheelsRajasthan TourismDelhi – Jaipur – Jaisalmer – Jodhpur –Sawai – Madhopur – Chittorgarh – Udaipur – Bharatpur – Agra – Delhi

Important Railway Committees

  • Shahnawaz Committee – 1954, High Level Safety Review Committee
  • Kanjaru Committee – 1962, Railway Accidents Committee
  • Wahchoo Committee – 1968, Railway Safety Committee
  • Seekari Committee – 1978, Railway Accidents Enquiry Committee
  • Khanna Committee – 1998, Railway Safety Review Committee
  • Arvind Panagariya committee – 2016 to fast-track bullet train project

Important facts about Railway:

  • First train in India – Mumbai to Thane, With 400 passengers, this train completed its journey of 34 kms with the help of three engines–Sahib, Sindh and Sultan.
  • Father of Indian Railway – Lord Dalhousie
  • Fastest train – The Bhopal Shatabdi Express,1988,betweenAgra and New Delhi
  • Slowest train in India- Nilgri Express,between Chennai and Mettupalayam
  • First electric train – Deccan Queen, 1931,connects Mumbai with Pune .
  • First double-decker train – Shatabdi train was flagged off in October 2011
  • First air-conditioned double-decker train – Shatabdi train will run from Mumbai to Goa
  • First underground railway (Metro Railway) – Kolkata Metro(1984)
  • Largest Zone in Indian Railways – Northern Railway
  • A platform surrounded by rail lines from all the four sides – Island platform
  • First railway station – Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station in Mumbai.
  • Longest running train -Vivek Express. It runs from Dibrugarh in upper Assam to Kanyakumari at the southern tip of Tamil Nadu.
  • Longest railway platform –Gorakhpur railway station, Uttar Pradesh
  • First A.C. train between Bombay and Baroda started – 1936
  • First broad gauge super fast train – rajdhani express new delhi howrah 1stmarch 1969
  • First metre gauge super fast train – pink city express new delhi jaipur 17thoct 1981
  • First narrow gauge super fast train – shivalik deluxe express kalka – shimla 9thaug 1996
  • First time table 1853 central india
  • First stamp on indian railways 4 annas 10thdec 1936 by king george
  • First ac train mumbai and baroda 1936
  • First automatic signalling system 1928
  • First railway book stall – 1877 allahabad wheeler & co ltd
  • First wagon in india 1920 jessop & co., Kolkata
  • First vestibuled train 1stjune 1930, deccan queen
  • World’s first double decker train – 1862 bb&cir
  • First railway tunnel of Indian railway -Parsik tunnel
  • First rail minister after independence – John Mathai and before independence Asif Ali
  • Countries there is no railway line – Lebanon,Mauritius reunion, Libya, Argentina, Afghanistan, Papua,New Guinea
  • Trains that have placed in Guinness Book -Darjeeling Toy Train, Nilgiri Mountain Train Simla Toy Train, Mathenron Toy Train, Place on wheels Royal Orient, Buddha circular Express, Fairy Queen.
  • Satpura Express numerical name 10001/10002 – run between Jabalpur and Balaghat
  • Longest train -Prayagraj Express (26 Coaches, New Delhi–Allahabad)
  • Highest Railway station in India – Similiguda (996.08 mt from sea level in the Valtair division of Southern–Eastern Railway)
  • Highest river bridge manufactured under Konkan Railway – Panval River Rail bridge (64 mt. high)
  • Division that has maximum number of tunnels – Kalka Simla division of Northern Railway (103 tunnels)
  • Longest railway bridge of Indian railway – Railway bridge in Kerala near Kochchi joins Idapalli to Vallerpadma (Length 4.62 km)
  • Last railway station of Northern Railway and Indian Railway – Bajalta
  • Indian state has maximum rail routes – Uttar Pradesh
  • Himsagar Express passes through – 11 States(Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala)
  • Railway station that has all the three rails -Dumdum Railway station (EMU rail service circular Railway and Metro Railway)
  • Railway station has smallest name from the English alphabets -IB (Between Howrah–Nagpur)
  • Railway station has longest name – Venkatanarsimharajuvaripeta (Tamilnadu)
  • First female operator in Delhi Metro – Minakshi Sharma.
  • First female to become the member of Railway Board – Vijaylaxmi Vishwanathan
  • Longest platform situated – Khadagpur (West Bengal)
  • Train only for women run – From Churchgate to Boriwali in Mumbai
  • Metro Rail in Calcutta – 1984
  • Railway week celebrated on 10–16April.
  • 19 Railway Recruitment Boards are there in India
  • First tourist rail – Palace on wheels in 1982 between Delhi–Jaipur
  • Railway accident in the history of Indian Railway occurred in Morghat (Pure–Bombay root) on 5 January, 1869
  • Longest rail route in India – from Dibrugarh (Assam) To Kanyakumari
  • First monorail operate in India – From Sarhind to Alampur and Bhawani mandi to Patiala
  • India’s first indigenous steam engine – F–734
  • First longest railway tunnel situated between Monkey hill and Khandala (2100 mt)
  • First telecommunication between guard and driver – Mumbai–New Delhi (Rajdhani Express)
  • First Rajdhani Express ran between New Delhi–Howrah , 1969
  • First DC electrical rail engine – Lokmanya (CLW manufactured it in 1961)
  • First computer reservation system start in New Delhi, 2002
  • Biggest railway yard located in India-Itarasi (Madhya Pradesh)
  • Southern Eastern Railway is known as ‘Blue chip’
  • Metroman – Shridharan (Delhi Metro Rail Engineers)
  • First Duranto Express ran between Sialdah and New Delhi 18 September, 2009
  • Numbers of Indian railway used to be of 5 Digits from 20 December, 2010
  • Busiest railway station in Indian-Lucknow (64 Trains everyday).
  • First railway factory established in Jamalpur, 1890
  • Train runs between India and Pakistan – Samjhauta Express, Thar Express
  • Railway zone launched first Railway Time Table -Central Railway
  • State with minimum rail routes – Manipur
  • First blind friendly train, from Mysuru to Varanasi – Train no. 16226/ 16230.

Other Important Recent Facts :

  • Dial 138 for medical emergency on train launched by Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways.
  • Golden Day in the history of Northeast – 10 August 2015
  • Harsh Vardhan, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu and Prakash Javadekar flagged off the special train(16 coaches) named Science Express Climate Action Special – “Climate Change” – 64 locations.
  • Japan offered to finance India’s first bullet train with an estimated cost of Rs. 90000 crores – Mumbai and Ahmedabad with speed 300km/h and 350km/h.
  • Delhi Metro’s bagged ranked first in“information during travel” and holds second position in “train cleanliness and comfort”.
  • Japanese maglev fastest passenger train across the world, has broken an earlier speed record of 581 kmph as the train reached 603 kmph.
  • First Compressed Natural Gas(CNG)flagged off – two trains(Rewari to Rohtak and Rewari to Bikaner station) from Haryana’s Rewari station.
  • Mobile-‘m-Indicator’ launched for the safety of women-Mumbai suburban trains.
  • Mumbai will get its 1st double-decker bridge on P D’Mello Road at CST that will have railway tracks and a motorway.
  • India’s 1st railway-line built between Gandhidham and Tuna-Tekra Port under PPP model inaugurated in Gujarat.
  • Union cabinet approved a proposal to redevelop 400 railway stations using a contract method called the “Swiss challenge”- 400 stations.
  • Gatimaan Express,India’s 1st semi-high speed train service with supersonic calliber between Delhi and Agra at a speed of 160 kph
  • India’s 1st Diesel Electric Multiple Unit(DEMU) train service with an air-conditioned coach is launched in Kochi – Ernakulam-Tripunithura-Piravom train service.
  • 1st goods train from Lumding to Silchar in Assam-210Km.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged 1st train service from Thalaimannar to Madhu Road in Northern Sri Lanka.
  • Indian Railways IRCTC Launched Ru-Pay pre-paid debit card-24th March 2015.
  • Delhi & Tokyo may ink pact for India’s first Bullet Train – Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
  • Diamond Quadtrilateral project – High speed rail connects Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi
  • Current Railway Minister – Suresh Prabhu