First introduced in 1853, rail transport in India was nationalized and formed into the single unit of ‘Indian Railways’ in 1951. Today, Indian railway system is the second largest rail network in the world, under single management. Almost all the rail operations managed by the state-owned Indian Railways, fall under the jurisdiction of federal ‘Ministry of Railways’. Thus, Indian Railways (IR) is a department of the Indian Government that comes under the purview of the Ministry of Railways.
While the Ministry of Railways is directed by the Cabinet Rank Railway Minister, the Indian Railways Department, on the other hand, is controlled by the Railway Board. Rail transport is one of the most common modes of long-distance travel and caters to transportation requirements of a major part of the Indian populace. The rail network in the country stretches for a total length of 63,140 km and transports over 5 billion passengers and over 350 million tonnes of freight annually.
Moreover, its operations encompass 28 states and 3 union territories. Limited services are also available to places like Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Owing to its high penetration and people-oriented approach, Indian Railways today enjoys state monopoly on the entire rail transport system of the country. Infact, Indian Railways is the second largest utility and commercial employer in the world & has more than 1.6 million employees under its umbrella. It also manages long distance and suburban railway travel and runs about 14,444 trains daily.
In India, trains are classified on the basis of their speed and the area of operation and are officially known by a four digit code. Apart from the trains, Indian Railways also has an approximate of 7739 locomotives, 39,263 coaches, 2,22,147 freight wagons, 700 repair shops, 2300 good sheds and more than 7000 stations. With sprinting pace of technology today, in the form of computerization, railways system of India has emerged as one of the most proficient rail networks in the whole world.
