Few words about Railway Stations in India:

INDIAN RAILWAY or Indian Railways is a Government of India undertaking that is responsible for rail transportations throughout India. INDIAN RAILWAY comes under the Ministry of Railways and ranks fourth in the world after United States of America, USSR and China. It owns seven thousand and eighty three stations and has sixty four thousand and two hundred and fifteen kilometers track. The railway lines operate throughout the country and are capable of carrying as many as thirty million passengers and around three million freightregularly. When it comes to employing people, Indian Railways has the highest employees in any other sector in India, whether private or public, counting to 1.6 million people. Ownership of INDIAN RAILWAY is also immense with sixty thousand coaches, nine thousand locomotives and two hundred and thirty thousand freight wagons.

Railways were incepted in the year 1853 in India and when India got independence in the year 1947, there were already forty two rail systems in the country. Indian railways became one unit by nationalizing in the year 1951 and were declared one of the largest world set-ups. Whether it is a suburban or long distance network, Indian Railway functions in every façade. It includes multi- gauge, meter gauge, broad gauge and narrow gauges as well. Ownership of coach production and locomotive services also stay with Indian Railways.

In the year 1925, IR had its electrification, though limiting to suburban traffic only. It was only three hundred and eighty eight kilometers till the year 1955 and tremendously increased in the next five years’ time span, which were 748. Thus, it registered 92.7% increase every year. Growth rate till the year 1955 thus was 19.5% which was any day more than expected.

Broad gauge was constructed maximum twenty five thousand, two hundred and ninety two kilometers amongst the three gauges. In the year 1951, total route covered by it was 47.13 percent. It has increased thereafter and became forty thousand, six hundred and twenty kilometers till the year 1996, which includes twenty five thousand, five hundred and fifty six kilometers of single line and fifteen thousand and sixty four kilometers on multiple and double lines. That means it became 64.5% of sixty two hundred, nine hundred and fifteen kilometers. In the 24,185 kilometers route length, meter gauge constituted to almost forty five percent in the year 1950-51. In the year 1970-71, it increased to twenty five thousand, eight hundred and sixty five kilometers. Then with altering meter gauges to broad gauges, it saw a huge downfall in the year 1995-96 to 18,408 kilometers on single line and 93 kilometers on multiple lines, ie, accounting to 29.4% of entire route.

Railway Sectors

Zones are employed to divide IR and thereafter zones are sub-divided as divisions. There were six zones prior to 1951 and in the year 1951, it became eight. It further increased to nine in the year 1952 and by 2010, it became 17. Every division of Indian Railway has a headquarter and presently there are sixty seven divisions.

Every zone has a General Manager to head it who comes directly under Railway Board and has to report to it only. Division comes under the DRM or the Divisional Railway Managers. Each division also has a list of officers catering to services under various arenas like that of mechanical, engineering, electrical, telecommunication, signal, operations, accounts, and commercial, safety and personnel branches. Every officer from these branches has to report to his/her respective DM or the Divisional Manager. They hold the responsibility of maintenance of assets and operations.

Name Of Zone	Abbr	Headquarters	Divisions In Railway
Central Railway	CR	Mumbai	Bhusawal, Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur
East Central Railway	ECR	Hajipur	Danapur, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur
East Coast Railway	ECoR	Bhubaneswar	Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Visakhapatnam
Eastern Railway	ER	Kolkata	Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda
Kolkata Metro Railway	KMRC	Kolkata	Kolkata Metro
North Central Railway	NCR	Allahabad	Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi
North Eastern Railway	NER	Gorakhpur	Izzatnagar, Lucknow, Varanasi
North Western  Railway	NWR	Jaipur	Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur
Northeast Frontier Railway	NFR	Guwahati	Alipurduar, Katihar, Rangia, Lumding, Tinsukia
Northern Railway	NR	Delhi	Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow, Moradabad
South Central Railway	SCR	Secunderabad	Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Guntakal, Guntur, Nanded, Vijayawada
South East Central Railway	SECR	Bilaspur	Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur
South Eastern Railway	SER	Kolkata	Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi
South Western	SWR	Hubli	Hubli, Bangalore, Mysore
Southern Railway	SR	Chennai	Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram)
West Central Railway	WCR	Jabalpur	Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota
Western Railway	WR	Mumbai	Mumbai Central, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara

 

Employment and Training Opportunities:

INDIAN RAILWAY is the biggest employer all over the world by employing as many as 1.6 million people all over India. Its employees come under two categories: Gazetted Officers of Group A and Group B and Non Gazetted Officers under Group C and Group Union Public Service Commission is responsible for Group A gazette officers’ recruitment which is done through examination. There are 19 Railway Recruitment Boards that conduct recruitment of Group C and Group D non- gazette personnel. It ultimately comes under RRCB or the Railway Recruitment Control Board. There are six training centers that share the drill of all units. More..

Various Train Services

Speed is what determines trains and classifies them. Most of the fast trains have less number of stoppages when compared to their counterparts. They are also run on long distance tracks. Similarly, passenger trains are slow and have many stoppages. They are run on short distances and their second and third class amenities are mostly crowded.

Next is the Mails or the Express trains that are supposed to be quick and their reservations are required in advance for overnight journeys. Passengers can use tourist quota, else reservations are required in advance.  Most of the express trains travel at 47 kmper hour speed while that of Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express is 130 Km per hour. At the same time, passenger trains travel only at the speed of 27 km per hour. Some of the superfast express trains include Shatabdi Express & Jan Shatabdi, Rajdhani Express, Garib Rath, Duronto Express etc.

Train Numbers & Time Table

Trains are classified by their average speed. Get here the list of train number and time table of Duronto Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi and JanShatabdiExpress, GaribRath, SuperfastMail/Express, Mail/Express.

Manufacturing Divisions of Railway

Electronic locomotives for indian Railways are manufactured at Chittaranjan by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works and diesel locomotives by Diesel Locomotives Works situated at Varanasi. Integral Coach Factory situated in Perambur manufactures integral coaches for INDIAN RAILWAY which consists of undercarriage and monocoque construction. At Kapurthala Rail Coach Factory is located while the Rail Wheel Factory is placed at Yelahanka which makes axles and wheels for INDIAN RAILWAY. BHEL Jhansi branch also manufactures certain electric locomotives for Indian Railway.

Kashmir Railway

The state of J&K is connected to rest of the country with the aid of Kashmir Railways. It is called JUSBRL or the Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link, which initiated from Jammu and travels till Baramullawhich is total of 345 kilometers. The track stretches through extreme temperature and earthquake prone zones. The terrain is no doubt unreceptive which makes it a very tough venture. More..

Konkan Railway

KR or the Konkan Railway travels through the Konkan coast and is built and functioned by KRC or the Konkan Railway Corporation, covering Mangalore, Mumbai, Goa and the Western Ghats. More..

Indian Railways around Mountains

There are five major railway lines that can be found in Indian mountains and come under the Mountain Railways of India. Around nineteenth century, the construction of these lines began by British government and even today they are prevalent. While Kangra Valley Railway built in 1924, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway made in 1991 and built in 1898 lie in Himalayas, the rest two, Nilgiru Railway and Matheran Hill Railway Kalka Shimla Railway are situated in Southern India and Maharashtra respectively in Western Ghats.

Indian Railway Ministry

Indian Railways is the responsibility of the Ministry of Railways in India, which comprises of a Union Minister and two ministers for states. There is also a Railway Board that is answerable to the Ministry of Railway. More...

Forthcoming Fast Trains or Bullet Trains

There is no denial to the large railways in India. It is an irony that even today there does not exist a rail lines proficientto support high speed trains of 200 km/h and there are no such plans in the near future too.

Often trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi are known as fast express trains and the proposals of encouraging the bullet trains, which run at 250-350 km per hour speed, are on. More...

Proposed Route	Speed Expectation
Ahmedabad - Rajkot - Jamnagar - Dwarka	350 km/h
Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam	300 km/h
Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna	350 km/h
Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar	250 km/h
Howrah-Haldia	350 km/h
Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai	300 km/h
Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad	300 km/h
Rajkot - Junagadh - Veraval	350 km/h

 

Railway Stations of INDIAN RAILWAY

INDIAN RAILWAY started with 5,976 stations in the year 1950-55 which became 7,068 in 1995-96. Here is the complete list of all railway stations situated all over India. More..

Railway Reservation

Indian railway is charismatic and being convenient, economical and fast, it is often preferred by passengers. One can use Indian Rail Map and Rail Time Table, one can get complete information about reservations services employed all over India, which includes online reservations too.

Seat Availability in INDIAN RAILWAY

Indian railways may be one of the busiest set ups all over the world, yet it works for making life of its passengers easy. Seat availability is one such service that helps one to find the status of his seat or reservation. It is compulsory to have a seat today in order to get inside any compartment these days and moreover it makes trip enjoyable and confortable.

PNR Status

These days, one can see the status of PNR using the website of IRCTC. Even messages allow one to check the status within seconds. Here the complete procedure to check PNR status is mentioned in detail. More..

Indian Railways Refund Rules and Charges

If you have an unused ticket and you get it cancelled, it should be submitted to the concerned authorities within three hours post departure of the train. Rs. 20 is deducted from the total charge of the fee for cleric and the rest amount is returned back. More..

Rules for Break Journey

Break Journey services are offered to passengers who want to travel more than 500 kms in single journey by the INDIAN RAILWAY. Once at an en-route station, the journey can be broken for two days by the passenger under this rule. More..

Luggage, Fare and Related Rules

During travelling through Indian Railways, certain rules have to be followed regarding luggage carried along. Any luggage that cannot be identified cannot be taken in the train. The luggage has to be packed properly to be booked in carriage. Else one has to submit improper packing note to book the luggage. More..

Alteration of Name

If the reservation ticket of a passenger is confirmed, no one else can travel on his seat other than him. However, under certain circumstances the Chief of Reservation Supervisor holds the permission to permit altering passenger names of confirmed tickets. More..

Computerized Reservation Counters In India

Indian Railways operates about 1000 Computerized Reservation offices across the country. The list of the reservation counters are listed statewise. More..