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Indian Railways
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Indian Railways ( Bharatiya Rail), abbreviated as IR , is the state-owned railway company of India, which owns and operates most of the country's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India.
Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily. It is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.4 million employees.
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Indian Railways ( Bharatiya Rail), abbreviated as IR , is the state-owned railway company of India, which owns and operates most of the country's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India.
Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily. It is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.4 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than . IR owns over 200,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives of rolling stock.
Railways were first introduced to India in 1853. By 1947, the year of India's independence, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities.
History
A plan for a rail system in India was first put forward in 1832, but no further steps were taken for more than a decade. In 1844, the Governor-General of India Lord Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system in India. The East India Company (and later the British Government) encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of operation. The companies were to build and operate the lines under a 99 year lease, with the government having the option to buy them earlier.
Two new railway companies, Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) and East Indian Railway (EIR), were created in 1853-54 to construct and operate two 'experimental' lines near Bombay and Calcutta respectively. The first train in India had become operational on 22 December 1851 for localised hauling of canal construction material in Roorkee. A year and a half later, on 16 April 1853, the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder in Bombay and Thane. Covering a distance of , it was hauled by three locomotives, Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan.
In 1854 Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General of India, formulated a plan to construct a network of trunk lines connecting the principal regions of India. Encouraged by the government guarantees, investment flowed in and a series of new rail companies were established, leading to rapid expansion of the rail system in India. Soon various native states built their own rail systems and the network spread to the regions that became the modern-day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The route mileage of this network increased from in 1860 to in 1880 - mostly radiating inland from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. By 1895, India had started building its own locomotives, and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the Uganda Railway.
At the beginning of the twentieth century India had a multitude of rail services with diverse ownership and management, operating on broad, metre and narrow gauge networks. In 1900 the government took over the GIPR network, while the company continued to manage it. With the arrival of the First World War, the railways were used to transport troops and foodgrains to the port city of Bombay and Karachi en route to UK, Mesopotamia, East Africa etc. By the end of the First World War, the railways had suffered immensely and were in a poor state. In 1923, both GIPR and EIR were nationalized with the state assuming both ownership and management control.
The Second World War severely crippled the railways as rolling stock was diverted to the Middle East, and the railway workshops were converted into munitions workshops. At the time of independence in 1947, about 40 per cent of the railways then went to newly-created nation of Pakistan. A total of forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states, were amalgamated as a single unit which was christened as the Indian Railways. The existing rail networks were abandoned in favour of zones in 1951 and a total of six zones came into being in 1952.
As the economy of India improved, almost all railway production units were 'indigenised' (produced in India). By 1985, steam locomotives were phased out in favour of diesel and electric locomotives. The entire railway reservation system was streamlined with computerisation between 1987 and 1995.
Organisational Structure
Indian Railways is a department owned and controlled by the Government of India, via the Ministry of Railways rather than a private company. As of 2008, the Railway Ministry is headed by Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Union Minister for Railways and assisted by two Ministers of State for Railways, R. Velu and Naranbhai J. Rathwa. Indian Railways is administered by the Railway Board, which has six members and a chairman.
Railway Zones
The Calcutta Metro is owned and operated by Indian Railways, but is not a part of any of the zones. It is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.
Each of the sixteen zones, as well as the Calcutta Metro, is headed by a General Manager (GM) who reports directly to the Railway Board. The zones are further divided into divisions under the control of Divisional Railway Managers (DRM). The divisional officers of engineering, mechanical, electrical, signal & telecommunication, accounts, personnel, operating, commercial and safety branches report to the respective Divisional Manager and are in charge of operation and maintenance of assets. Further down the hierarchy tree are the Station Masters who control individual stations and the train movement through the track territory under their stations' administration.
| Sl. No | Name | Abbr. | Date Established | Headquarters | Divisions |
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| 1. | Central | CR | November 5, 1951 | Mumbai | Mumbai, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur | | 2. | East Central | ECR | October 1, 2002 | Hajipur | Danapur, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur | | 3. | East Coast | ECoR | April 1, 2003 | Bhubaneswar | Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Visakhapatnam | | 4. | Eastern | ER | April, 1952 | Kolkata | Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda | | 5. | North Central | NCR | April 1, 2003 | Allahabad | Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi | | 6. | North Eastern | NER | 1952 | Gorakhpur | Izzatnagar, Lucknow, Varanasi | | 7. | North Western | NWR | October 1, 2002 | Jaipur | Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur | | 8. | Northeast Frontier | NFR | 1958 | Guwahati | Alipurduar, Katihar, Lumding, Rangia, Tinsukia | | 9. | Northern | NR | April 14, 1952 | Delhi | Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow, Moradabad | | 10. | South Central | SCR | October 2, 1966 | Secunderabad | Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Guntakal, Guntur, Nanded, Vijayawada | | 11. | South East Central | SECR | April 1, 2003 | Bilaspur, CG | Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur | | 12. | South Eastern | SER | 1955 | Kolkata | Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi | | 13. | South Western | SWR | April 1, 2003 | Hubli | Hubli, Bangalore, Mysore | | 14. | Southern | SR | April 14, 1951 | Chennai | Chennai, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Tiruchchirapalli, Thiruvanathapuram | | 15. | West Central | WCR | April 1, 2003 | Jabalpur | Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota | | 16. | Western | WR | November 5, 1951 | Mumbai | Mumbai Central, Baroda, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar | |
Railway Production Units
The Indian Railways manufactures a lot of its rolling stock and heavy engineering components. This is largely due to historical reasons. As with most developing economies, the main reason is import substitution of expensive technology related products. This was relevant when the general state of the national engineering industry was immature.
Production Units, the manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways, are managed directly by the ministry. The General Managers of the PUs report to the Railway Board. The Production Units are:
These six production units (PUs) are each headed by a General Manager (GM), who also reports directly to the Railway Board.
Other independent units of Indian Railways are:
Important maintenance workshops on IR are:
Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO), Lucknow is the R&D division of Indian Railways and functions as the technical advisor to Railway Board, Zonal Railways, and Production Units.
Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), Bangalore is an organization unrelated to the Indian Railways, however it manufactures coaches for both the Indian Railways and the Delhi Metro system.
In addition to this the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), Metro Railway, Calcutta and construction organisation of NFR are also headed by a General Manager.
Railway PSU's
Apart from these zones and production units, a number of Public Sector Undertakings are under the administrative control of the ministry of railways. These units are:
- Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India
- Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation
- Konkan Railway Corporation
- Indian Railway Finance Corporation
- Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation
- Railtel Corporation of India – Telecommunication Networks
- RITES Ltd. – Consulting Division of Indian Railways
- IRCON International Ltd. – Construction Division
- Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
- Container Corporation of India
- Rail Land Development Authority is a statutory authority formed through an amendment of the Railways' Act, 1989 for commercial development of vacant railway land/
- Centre for Railway Information Systems is an autonomous organisation under the Railway Board, which is responsible for developing the major software required by Indian Railways.
Passenger services
Indian Railways operates about 9,000 passenger trains and transports 18 million passengers daily across twenty-eight states and one union territory, Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry). Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya are the only states not connected by rail.
The passenger division is the most preferred form of long distance transport in most of the country.
A standard passenger train consists of eighteen coaches, but some popular trains can have up to 24 coaches. Coaches are designed to accommodate anywhere from 18 to 81 passengers, but during the holiday seasons or when on busy routes, more passengers may travel in a coach. Most regular trains have coaches connected through vestibules. However, 'unreserved coaches' are not connected with the rest of the train via any vestibule.
Reservation against cancellation service is a provision for shared berth in case the travel ticket is not confirmed. It is a way of maximizing the number of wait-listed passengers to be accommodated in case of a cancellation.
Suburban rail
Many cities have their own dedicated suburban networks to cater to commuters. Currently, suburban networks operate in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata , Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Lucknow. Hyderabad, Pune and Lucknow do not have dedicated suburban tracks but share the tracks with long distance trains. New Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai have their own metro networks, namely the New Delhi Metro, the Kolkata Metro,and the Chennai MRTS, with dedicated tracks mostly laid on a flyover.
Suburban trains that handle commuter traffic are mostly electric multiple units. They usually have nine coaches or sometimes twelve to handle rush hour traffic. One unit of an EMU train consists of one power car and two general coaches. Thus a nine coach EMU is made up of three units having one power car at each end and one at the middle. The rakes in Mumbai run on direct current, while those elsewhere use alternating current. A standard coach is designed to accommodate 96 seated passengers, but the actual number of passengers can easily double or triple with standees during rush hour.
Notable trains and achievements
There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites on IR — the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Mountain railways of India. The latter is not contiguous, but actually consists of three separate railway lines located in different parts of India:
The Palace on Wheels is a specially designed train, frequently hauled by a steam locomotive, for promoting tourism in Rajasthan. On the same lines, the Maharashtra government introduced the Deccan Odyssey covering various tourist destinations in Maharashtra and Goa, and was followed by the Government of Karnataka which introduced the Golden Chariot train connecting popular tourist destinations in Karnataka and Goa. However, neither of them has been able to enjoy the popular success of the Palace on Wheels.
The Samjhauta Express is a train that runs between India and Pakistan. However, hostilities between the two nations in 2001 saw the line being closed. It was reopened when the hostilities subsided in 2004. Another train connecting Khokhrapar (Pakistan) and Munabao (India) is the Thar Express that restarted operations on February 18, 2006; it was earlier closed down after the 1965 Indo-Pak war. The Kalka Shimla Railway till recently featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometres.
The Lifeline Express is a special train popularly known as the "Hospital-on-Wheels" which provides healthcare to the rural areas. This train has a carriage that serves as an operating room, a second one which serves as a storeroom and an additional two that serve as a patient ward. The train travels around the country, staying at a location for about two months before moving elsewhere.
Among the famous locomotives, the Fairy Queen is the oldest running locomotive on the mainline (though only for specials) in the world today, though the distinction of the oldest surviving locomotive that has recently seen service belongs to John Bull. Kharagpur railway station also has the distinction of being the world's longest railway platform at 1072 m (3,517 ft). The Ghum station along the Darjeeling Toy Train route is the second highest railway station in the world to be reached by a steam locomotive. The Mumbai–Pune Deccan Queen has the oldest running dining car in IR.
The Himsagar Express, between Kanyakumari and Jammu Tawi, has the longest run in terms of distance and time on Indian Railways network. It covers 3,745 km (2,327 miles) in about 74 hours and 55 minutes. The Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India today having a maximum speed of 150 km/h (93.7 mph) on the Faridabad–Agra section. The fastest speed attained by any train is 184 km/h (114 mph) in 2000 during test runs.
Freight
IR carries a huge variety of goods ranging from mineral ores, fertilizers and petrochemicals, agricultural produce, iron & steel, multimodal traffic and others. Ports and major urban areas have their own dedicated freight lines and yards. Many important freight stops have dedicated platforms and independent lines.
Indian Railways makes 70% of its revenues and most of its profits from the freight sector, and uses these profits to cross-subsidise the loss-making passenger sector. However, competition from trucks which offer cheaper rates has seen a decrease in freight traffic in recent years. Since the 1990s, Indian Railways has switched from small consignments to larger container movement which has helped speed up its operations. Most of its freight earnings come from such rakes carrying bulk goods such as coal, cement, food grains and iron ore.
Indian Railways also transports vehicles over long distances. Trucks that carry goods to a particular location are hauled back by trains saving the trucking company on unnecessary fuel expenses. Refrigerated vans are also available in many areas. The "Green Van" is a special type used to transport fresh food and vegetables. Recently Indian Railways introduced the special 'Container Rajdhani' or CONRAJ, for high priority freight. The highest speed notched up for a freight train is for a 4,700 metric tonne load.
Recent changes have sought to boost the earnings from freight. A privatization scheme was introduced recently to improve the performance of freight trains. Companies are being allowed to run their own container trains. The first length of an freight corridor linking India's biggest cities has recently been approved. The railways has increased load limits for the system's 225,000 freight wagons by 11%, legalizing something that was already happening. Due to increase in manufacturing transport in India that was augmented by the increase in fuel cost, transportation by rail became advantageous financially. New measures such as speeding up the turnaround times have added some 24% to freight revenues.
Dedicated Freight Corridor
Ministry of Railways have planned to construct a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) covering about 2762 route km on two corridors, Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Sone Nagar and Western Corridor from Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Mumbai to Tughlakabad/Dadri along with interlinking of two corridors at Khurja. Upgrading of transportation technology, increase in productivity and reduction in unit transportation cost are the focus areas for the project.
“Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCC)” is a special purpose vehicle created to undertake planning & development, mobilization of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors. DFCC has been registered as a company under the Companies Act 1956 on 30th October 2006.
Rail Budget and Finances
The Railway Budget deals with planned infrastructure expenditure on the railways as well as with the operating revenue and expenditure for the upcoming fiscal years, the public elements of which are usually the induction and improvement of existing trains and routes, planned investment in new and existing infrastructure elements, and the tariff for freight and passenger travel. The Parliament discusses the policies and allocations proposed in the budget. The budget needs to be passed by a simple majority in the Lok Sabha (Lower House). The comments of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) are non-binding. Indian Railways is subject to the same audit control as other government revenue and expenditures. Based on anticipated traffic and the projected tariff, requirement of resources for capital and revenue expenditure of railways is worked out. While the revenue expenditure is met entirely by railways itself, the shortfall in the capital (plan) expenditure is met partly from borrowings (raised by Indian Railway Finance Corporation) and the rest from Budgetary support from the Central Government. Indian Railways pays dividend to the Central Government for the capital invested by the Central Government.
As per the Separation Convention (on the recommendations of the Acworth Committee), 1924, the Railway Budget is presented to the Parliament by the Union Railway Minister, two days prior to the General Budget, usually around 26th February. Though the Railway Budget is separately presented to the Parliament, the figures relating to the receipt and expenditure of the Railways are also shown in the General Budget, since they are a part and parcel of the total receipts and expenditure of the Government of India. This document serves as a balance sheet of operations of the Railways during the previous year and lists out plans for expansion for the current year.
The formation of policy and overall control of the railways is vested in Railway Board, comprising the Chairman, the Financial Commissioner and other functional members of Traffic, Engineering, Mechanical, Electrical and Staff departments.
Indian Railways, which a few years ago was operating at a loss, has, in recent years, been generating positive cash flows and been meeting its dividend obligations to the government. The railway reported a cash surplus of ? 9000 cr in 2005, ? 14000 cr in 2006, ? 20,000 cr in 2007 and ? 25,000 cr for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. Its operating ratio improved to 76% while, in the last four years, its plan size increased from ? 13,000 cr to ? 30,000 cr. The proposed investment for the 2008-2009 fiscal year is ? 37,500 cr, 21% more than for the previous fiscal year. Budget Estimates-2008 for Freight, Passenger, Sundry other Earnings and other Coaching Earnings have been kept at ? 52,700 cr, ? 21,681 cr, ? 5,000 cr and ? 2,420 cr respectively. Maintaining an overall double digit growth, Gross Traffic Earnings have been projected as ? 93,159 crore in 2009-10 (19.1 billion USD at current rate), exceeding the revised estimates for the current fiscal by ? 10,766 crore. Around 20% of the passenger revenue is earned from the upper class segments of the passenger segment (the air-conditioned classes).
Current Issues and Upgrades
Although accidents such as derailment and collisions are less common in recent times, many are run over by trains, especially in crowded areas. Indian Railways have accepted the fact that given the size of operations, eliminating accidents is an unrealistic goal, and at best they can only minimize the accident rate. Human error is the primary cause, leading to 83% of all train accidents in India. of mishaps. In the past, the Konkan Railway route has suffered from landslides in the monsoon season, causing fatal accidents.
Outdated communication, safety and signaling equipment, which used to contribute to failures in the system, is being updated with the latest technology. A number of train accidents happened on account of a system of manual signals between stations, so automated signaling is getting a boost at considerable expense. It is felt that this would be required given the gradual increase in train speeds and lengths, that would tend to make accidents more dangerous. In the latest instances of signaling control by means of interlinked stations, failure-detection circuits are provided for each track circuit and signal circuit with notification to the signal control centres in case of problems. Though currently available only in a small subset of the overall IR system, anti-collision devices are to be extended to the entire system. Aging colonial-era bridges and century-old tracks also require regular maintenance and upgrading.
In recent years Indian Railways has laid claim to a financial turnaround, with (unaudited) operating profits going up substantially. Credit for this achievement has been claimed by current Indian Railway Minister, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, who asserts that he made significant improvements in the operating efficiency of goods traffic after he took over as Railway Minister in May 2004.
The Sixth Pay Commission has been constituted in India to review the pay structure of Government employees, and its recommendations are expected by the end of 2008. Based on its recommendations, the salaries of all Railways officers and staff are expected to be revised with retrospective effect (w.e.f. January 1, 2006). If previous Pay Commissions are taken as an indicator, this revision could be 50%, thus having an impact on present and future Railway budgets.
The Rajdhani Express and Shatabadi Express are the fastest trains of Indian Railways, though they face competition from low-cost airlines since they run at a maximum speed of only . At least five corridors are under consideration for the introduction of high speed bullet trains to India with expert assistance from France.
It is estimated that to modernise Indian Rail and bring it up to international standards, would require over billion in new and upgrade investments.
IR is in the process of upgrading stations, coaches, tracks, services, safety, and security. Initially, various upgrade and overhaul work will be performed at more than fifty stations, some of it by private contract. All meter gauge lines in the country will be converted to broad gauge (see Project Unigauge). New LHB(Alstom) stainless steel coaches, manufactured in India, have been installed in Premier Rajdhanis and Shatabdis like Howrah Rajdhanis,Sealdah Rajdhanis, Mumbai Rajdhanis ,August Kranti Rajdhanis, Patna Rajdhanis, Guwahati Rajdhanis and Bhuwaneshwar Rajdhanis. These coaches enhance the safety and riding comfort of passengers besides having more carrying capacity, and in time will replace thousands of old model coaches throughout Indian Railways. More durable and conforming polyurethane paint is now being used to enhance the quality of rakes and significantly reduce the cost of repainting. Improved ventilation and illumination are part of the new scheme of things, along with the decision to install air brake systems on all coaches. New manufacturing units are being set up to produce state-of-the-art locomotives and coaches. IR is also expanding its telemedicine network facilities to further give its employees in far-flung and remote areas access to specialized medicine. IR has also piloted Internet connectivity on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express , powered by
Sanitation in trains and stations throughout the system is getting more attention with the introduction of eco-friendly, discharge-free, green (or bio-) toilets developed by IIT Kanpur. Updated eco-friendly refrigerant is being used in AC systems while fire detection systems will be installed on trains in a phased manner. New rodent-control and cleanliness procedures are working their way into the many zones of IR. Central Railway's 'Operation Saturday' is gradually making progress, station by station, in the cleanup of its Mumbai division.
Recruitment
The recruitment to the Indian Railways is done through nineteen RRBs (Railway Recruitment Boards) which are controlled by the RRCB (Railway Recruitment Control Board).
See also
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