Indian Railway Zones: Indian Railways (IR) is the largest rail network in Asia and the second largest rail network in the world under single management. It has been a major component of India's transport sector for more than 106 years. It is the world's largest employer, with over 1.3 million employees.
Introduction of Railways in India:
Railways in India was started by the British in 1853 for their administrative convenience, but today the railway network is spread in most parts of India and rail has become a cheap and main means of transport. From a very modest beginning in 1853 when the first Up train covered the distance from Mumbai to Thane (a distance of 34 km).
List of Indian Railways Zones, Year of Establishment and their Headquarters:-
| Name & Headquarters | Establishment | Headquarters |
| Northern Railway (Delhi) | April 14, 1952 | Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow, Moradabad |
| North Eastern Railway (Gorakhpur) | 1952 | Izzat Nagar, Lucknow, Varanasi |
| Northeast Frontier Railway (Guwahati) | 1958 | Alipore Gate, Katihar, Lamding, Rangiya, Tinsukia |
| Eastern Railway (Kolkata) | April, 1952 | Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda |
| South Eastern Railway (Kolkata) | 1955 | Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi |
| South Central Railway (Secunderabad) | October 02, 1966 | Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Guntakal, Guntur, Nanded, Vijayawada |
| Southern Railway (Chennai) | April 14, 1951 | Chennai, Madurai, Palghat, Tiruchurapalli, Trivandrum, Salem (Coimbatore) |
| Central Railway (Mumbai) | 05 November 1951 | Mumbai, Bhusaval, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur |
| Western Railway (Mumbai) | 05 November 1951 | Mumbai Central, Vadodara, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar |
| South Western Railway (Hubli) | 01 April, 2003 | Hubli, Bangalore, Mysore |
| North Western Railway (Jaipur) | October 01, 2002 | Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur |
| West Central Railway (Jabalpur) | 01 April, 2003 | Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota |
| North Central Railway (Allahabad) | 01 April, 2003 | Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi |
| South East Central Railway (Bilaspur) | 01 April, 2003 | Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur |
| East Coast Railway (Bhubaneswar) | 01 April, 2003 | Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Visakhapatnam |
| East Central Railway (Hajipur) | October 01, 2002 | Danapur, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur |
| Konkan Railway† (Navi Mumbai) | January 26, 1998 | Nobody |
Other important information related to Indian Railways:
- Indian Railways is the largest rail network in Asia and the second largest rail network in the world.
- There are 1376000 lakh employees in Indian Railways at this time.
- It plays an important role not only in meeting the basic infrastructural needs of the country but also in connecting the scattered areas together and promoting the country's national integrity.
- Indian Railways has been at the forefront in delivering relief material to disaster prone areas during national emergencies.
- It is very ideal and suitable for commuting of people, for carrying large quantities of goods and for traveling long distances.
- It is the life stream of the country and has an important place for its socio-economic development. A well-established railway system brings people together from the remotest parts of the country and makes trade, sightseeing, pilgrimage and education possible.
- It improves the standard of living and thus helps in accelerating the development of industry and agriculture.
- Pipavav Railway Corporation Limited (PRCL) is the first public-private partnership infrastructure model in rail transport.
- The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a very old thin gauge railway system, has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
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Indian Railway Zone FAQs:
The country's first railway station is the Gandhi Nagar railway station of Jaipur. A woman employee has been appointed at every post in the North Western Railway station here. This station has become the first station in the country where women employees have been deployed at every post.
The Trans-Siberian Railway links Saint Petersburg in the west with Vladivostok in the east. It passes through many important cities like Markhalov, Baikal, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg.
The total length of the Konkan Railway is approximately 740 kilometers (461 mi). This line covers the temperate climate zone and also showcases beautiful views of the Western Ghats.
Broad gauge is also called broad gauge or broad gauge. In these railway gauges, the distance between two tracks is 1676 mm (5 ft 6 in). It would also not be wrong to say that standard gauge or any gauge wider than 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) is called broad gauge.
The British introduced railways in India to facilitate British commerce and administrative control.