List of Railways Ministers of India from 1947 to 2024

Current Railway Minister of India 2024:

The Current Railway Minister of India is Ashwini Vaishnav. He has been serving as the Railway Minister of India since 8 July 2021. Ashwini Vaishnav Political career is associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, before that he has also held the post of an IAS officer, since 28 June 2019, he is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Odisha He is a member of the Parliament of India representing the state.

Prior to Ashwini Vaishnav, India's well-known Indian politician and chartered accountant Piyush Goyal served as the Railway Minister of India from 3 September 2017 to 7 July 2021.

List of Railway Ministers of India (1947–2024):

Name of Railway Minister	Term	Political party or coalition
Asaf Ali	September 02, 1946-August 14, 1947	Indian National Congress
John Mathai	15 August, 1947-22 September, 1948	Indian National Congress
N Gopalaswami Ayyangar	22 September, 1948-13 May, 1952	Indian National Congress
Lal Bahadur Shastri	13 May, 1952-07 December 1956	Indian National Congress
Jagjivan Ram	07 December, 1956-10 April, 1962	Indian National Congress
Golden Lion	10 April, 1962-21 September, 1963	Indian National Congress
A. C. Dasappa	21st September, 1963-08th June, 1964	Indian National Congress
S. Of. Patil	June 09, 1964-March 12, 1967	Indian National Congress
C. M. Poonacha	13 March, 1967-14 February, 1969	Indian National Congress
Ram Subhag Singh	14 February, 1969-04 November, 1969	Indian National Congress
P. Govind Menon	04 November, 1969-18 February, 1970	Indian National Congress
Gulzarilal Nanda	18 February, 1970-17 March, 1971	Indian National Congress
K. Hanmunthaiya	March 18, 1971-July 22, 1972	Indian National Congress
T. a. pai	23 July, 1972-04 February, 1973	Indian National Congress
Lalit Narayan Mishra	February 05, 1973-January 02, 1975	Indian National Congress
Kamalapati Tripathi	11 February 1975-23 March 1977	Indian National Congress
Madhu Dandavate	26 March 1977-28 July, 1979	Janata Party
T. a. pai	July 30, 1979-January 13, 1980	Janata Party (Secular) & Indian National Congress
Kamalapati Tripathi	January 14, 1980-November 12, 1980	Indian National Congress
Kedar Pandey	12 November 1980-14 January 1982	Indian National Congress
Prakash Chandra Sethi	15th January, 1982-02nd September, 1982	Indian National Congress
A. B. a. Ghani Khan Chowdhury	02 September 1982-31 December, 1984	Indian National Congress
Bansi Lal	31st December, 1984-04th June, 1986	Indian National Congress
Mohsina Kidwai	June 24, 1986-October 21, 1986	Indian National Congress
Madhavrao Scindia	22nd October, 1986-01st December, 1989	Indian National Congress
George Fernandes	05 December 1989-10 November, 1990	Janata Dal
Janeshwar Mishra	21st November, 1990-21st June, 1991	Samajwadi Janata Party
C. Of. Jaffar Sharif	June 21, 1991-October 16, 1995	Indian National Congress
Ram Vilas Paswan	June 01, 1996-March 19, 1998	United Front (Janata Dal)
Nitish Kumar	March 19, 1998-August 05, 1999	National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
Ram Naik	August 06, 1999-October 12, 1999	National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
Mamata Banerjee	October 13, 1999-March 15, 2001	National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
Nitish Kumar	March 20, 2001-May 22, 2004	National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
Lalu Prasad Yadav	May 23, 2004-May 25, 2009	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Mamata Banerjee	May 26, 2009-May 19, 2011	United Progressive Alliance (UPA) & National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
Dinesh Trivedi	July 12, 2011-March 14, 2012	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Mukul Roy	March 20, 2012-September 21, 2012	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
C. P. Joshi	September 22, 2012-October 28, 2012	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Pawan Kumar Bansal	October 28, 2012-May 10, 2013	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
C. P. Joshi	May 11, 2013-June 16, 2013	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Mallikarjun Kharge	June 17, 2013-May 25, 2014	United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
D. V. Sadananda Gowda	May 26, 2014-November 09, 2014	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Suresh Prabhu	10 November, 2014-03 September, 2017	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Piyush Goyal	September 03, 2017-July 07, 2021	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Ashwini Vaishnav	July 07, 2021- present	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Ministry of Railways, India:

The Ministry of Railways is an important ministry of the Government of India that controls the construction and transportation of railways in India. The charge of Indian Railways is with this ministry. Asaf Ali was the first Railway Minister of India who was also the Governor of Odisha. He worked on the post of Railways and Traffic from September 02, 1946 to February 1947 during the Interim Government.

From where to where did India's first train run?

On 16 April 1853, India's first train ran from Mumbai to Thane (34 km). A 14-coach train with a steam engine had departed from Mumbai to Thane. Indian Railways is a major transport organization, the largest rail network in Asia and the second largest conglomerate in the world under a single entity.

Structure of Ministry of Railways:

Railways has a total of three ministers including one cabinet and two ministers of state. The Railway Board, the apex body of the Indian Railways, comes under the Ministry of Railways. The Railway Board is constituted by a Chairman and a number of "Members of the Railway Board". Many directorates come under the Railway Board. The headquarters of the Ministry of Railways is Rail Bhawan located in New Delhi.