Indian Railways

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indian Railways

Type	Public
Founded	April 16, 1853, nationalized in 1951
Headquarters	New Delhi
Key people	Union Railway Minister: Laloo Prasad Yadav Minister of State for Railways (V): R. Velu Minister of State for Railways (R): Naranbhai J Rathwa Chairman Railway Board: J. P. Batra
Area served	India
Industry	Railways and Locomotives
Products	Broad gauge, Metre gauge and Narrow gauge trains on a 63,140 km network
Parent	Government of India
Website	http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/

Indian Railways (Hindi: भारतीय रेल), abbreviated as IR, is the state-owned railway company of India. Indian Railways had, until recently ^[1] , a monopoly on the country's rail transport. It is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting just over six billion passengers and almost 750 million tonnes of freight annually. IR is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.6 million employees^[2].

The railways traverse through the length and width of the country; the routes cover a total length of 63,140 km (39,462 miles). As of 2002, IR owned a total of 216,717 wagons, 39,236 coaches and 7,739 locomotives and ran a total of 14,444 trains daily, including about 8,702 passenger trains^[3].

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. Indian Railways operates both long distance and suburban rail systems.

1 History
2 Railway zones
3 Passenger services
4 Production Services
5 Suburban rail
6 Freight
7 Notable trains and achievements
8 Organisational structure
9 Rail budget and finances
10 Current problems
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links

[edit] History

One of the earliest pictures of railways in India

Extent of Great Indian Peninsular Railway network in 1870. The GIPR was one of the largest rail companies at that time.

Main article: History of rail transport in India

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. Two new railway companies were created and the East India Company was asked to assist them. Interest from investors in the UK led to the rapid creation of a rail system over the next few years. The first train in India became operational on 1851-12-22, and was used for the hauling of construction material in Roorkee. A year and a half later, on 1853-04-16, the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thana. Covering a distance of 34 km (21 miles), it was hauled by three locomotives, Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. This was the formal birth of railways in India.

The British government encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would guarantee an annual return of five percent during the initial years of operation. Once established, the company would be transferred to the government, with the original company retaining operational control. The route mileage of this network was about 14,500 km (9,000 miles) by 1880, mostly radiating inward 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.

Soon various independent kingdoms built their own rail systems and the network spread to the regions that became the modern-day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. A Railway Board was constituted in 1901, but decision-making power was retained by the Viceroy, Lord Curzon. The Railway Board operated under aegis of the Department of Commerce and Industry and had three members: a government railway official serving as chairman, a railway manager from England and an agent of one of the company railways. For the first time in its history, the Railways began to make a tidy profit. In 1907, almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government.

The following year, the first electric locomotive appeared. With the arrival of the First World War, the railways were used to meet the needs of the British outside India. By the end of the First World War, the railways had suffered immensely and were in a poor state. The government took over the management of the Railways and removed the link between the financing of the Railways and other governmental revenues in 1920, a practice that continues to date with a separate railway budget.

The Second World War severely crippled the railways as trains were diverted to the Middle East, and the railway workshops were converted into munitions workshops. At the time of independence in 1947, a large portion of the railways went to the then newly formed 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. By 1985, steam locomotives were phased out in favour of diesel and electric locomotives. The entire railway reservation system was streamlined with computerisation in 1995.

[edit] Railway zones

A schematic map of the Indian Railway network

For administrative purposes, Indian Railways is divided into sixteen zones.

No.	Name	Abbr.	Headquarters	Date established
1.	Northern Railway	NR	Delhi	April 14, 1952
2.	North Eastern Railway	NER	Gorakhpur	1952
3.	Northeast Frontier Railway	NFR	Maligaon(Guwahati)	1958
4.	Eastern Railway	ER	Kolkata	April, 1952
5.	South Eastern Railway	SER	Kolkata	1955,
6.	South Central Railway	SCR	Secunderabad	October 2, 1966
7.	Southern Railway	SR	Chennai	April 14, 1951
8.	Central Railway	CR	Mumbai	November 5, 1951
9.	Western Railway	WR	Mumbai	November 5, 1951
10.	South Western Railway	SWR	Hubli	April 1, 2003
11.	North Western Railway	NWR	Jaipur	Oct 1, 2002
12.	West Central Railway	WCR	Jabalpur	April 1, 2003
13.	North Central Railway	NCR	Allahabad	April 1, 2003
14.	South East Central Railway	SECR	Bilaspur, CG	April 1, 2003
15.	East Coast Railway	ECoR	Bhubaneswar	April 1, 2003
16.	East Central Railway	ECR	Hajipur	Oct 1, 2002
17.	Konkan Railway†	KR	Navi Mumbai	Jan 26, 1998

†Konkan Railway (KR) is constituted as a separately incorporated railway, with its headquarters at Belapur CBD (Navi Mumbai). It comes under the control of the Railway Ministry and the Railway Board.

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 zonal railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each having a divisional headquarters. There are a total of sixty-seven divisions.

Zonal Railway	Divisions
Northern Railway	Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow, Moradabad
North Eastern Railway	Izzatnagar, Lucknow, Varanasi
Northeast Frontier Railway	Alipurduar, Katihar, Lumding, Rangia, Tinsukia
Eastern Railway	Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda
South Eastern Railway	Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi
South Central Railway	Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Guntakal, Guntur, Nanded, Vijayawada
Southern Railway	Chennai, Madurai, Palghat, Tiruchchirapalli, Trivandrum, Salem
Central Railway	Mumbai, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur
Western Railway	Mumbai Central, Baroda, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar
South Western Railway	Hubli, Bangalore, Mysore
North Western Railway	Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur
West Central Railway	Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota
North Central Railway	Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi
South East Central Railway	Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur
East Coast Railway	Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Visakhapatnam
East Central Railway	Danapur, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur

[edit] Passenger services

A long distance express train

Indian Railways operates 8,702 passenger trains and transports around five billion annually across twenty-six states and three union territories (Delhi, Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry) and Chandigarh). Sikkim and Meghalaya are the only states not connected.

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 72 passengers, but may actually accommodate many more during the holiday seasons and on busy routes. The coaches in use are vestibules, but some of these may be dummied on some trains for operational reasons. Freight trains use a large variety of wagons.

Each coach has different accommodation class; the most popular being the sleeper class. Up to nine of these type coaches are usually coupled. Air conditioned coaches are also attached, and a standard train may have between three and five air-conditioned coaches. Online passenger ticketing, introduced in 2004, is expected to top 100,000 per day by 2009.

[edit] Production Services

A WAP5 locomotive

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:

Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi
Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
Diesel-Loco Modernisation Works, Patiala
Integral Coach Factory, Chennai
Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala
Wheel & Axle Plant, Bangalore
Rail Spring Karkhana, Gwalior

[edit] Suburban rail

The New Delhi Metro railway

Many cities have their own dedicated suburban networks to cater to commuters. Currently, suburban networks operate in Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Pune. Hyderabad, and Pune do not have dedicated suburban tracks but share the tracks with long distance trains. New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata have their own metro networks, namely the New Delhi Metro, the Chennai MRTS and the Kolkata Metro, respectively.

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 ([3]). 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. The Kolkata metro has the administrative status of a zonal railway, though it does not come under the seventeen railway zones.

The Suburban trains in Mumbai handle more rush then any other suburban network in India. The network has three lines viz, western, central and harbour. It's considered to be the lifeline on Mumbai. On 11 July 2006 six bombs were set off on these trains, targeted at the general public.

[edit] Freight

A single line rail bridge

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 100 km/h (62 mph) 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 11,000km freight corridor linking India's biggest cities has recently been approved. The railways has increased load limits for the system's 220,000 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.

[edit] Notable trains and achievements

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a World Heritage Site, and one of the few steam engines in operation in India.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a narrow gauge train with a steam locomotive is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The route started earlier at Siliguri and now at New Jalpaiguri in the plains in West Bengal and traverses tea gardens en route to Darjeeling, a hill station at an elevation of 2,134 metres (7,000 ft). The highest station in this route is Ghum. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, in the Nilgiri Hills in southern India, is also classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.^[4] It is also the only rack railway in India. The Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station in Mumbai is another World Heritage Site operated by Indian Railways.

A Beyer Garrett 6594 Engine seen at the National Rail Museum

The Palace on Wheels is a specially designed train, lugged by a steam engine, for promoting tourism in Rajasthan. The Maharashtra government did try and introduce the Deccan Odyssey along the Konkan route, but it did not enjoy the same success as the Palace on Wheels. The Samjhauta Express was a train that ran 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 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.^[5]

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 compartment 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 in the world today, though the distinction of the oldest surviving locomotive 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.^[6] Indian Railways operates 7,566 locomotives; 37,840 Coaching vehicles and 222,147 freight wagons. There are a total of 6,853 stations; 300 yards; 2,300 goods-sheds; 700 repair shops and a total workforce of 1.54 million.^[7]

The shortest named station is Ib and the longest is Sri Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta. 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 Trivandrum Rajdhani, between Delhi's Nizamuddin Station and Trivandrum, travels non-stop between Vadodara and Kota, covering a distance of 528 km (328 miles) in about 6.5 hours, and has the longest continuous run on Indian Railways today. The Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India today having a maximum speed of 140 km/h (87 mph) on the Faridabad-Agra section. The fastest speed attained by any train is 184 km/h (114 mph) in 2000 during test runs. This speed is much lower than fast trains in other parts of the world. One reason attributed for this difference is that the tracks are not suited for higher speeds.

[edit] Organisational structure

The headquarters of the Indian Railways in Delhi

Indian Railways is a publicly owned company controlled by the Government of India, via the Ministry of Railways. The ministry is currently headed by Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Union Minister for Railways and assisted by two junior Ministers of State for Railways, R. Velu and Naranbhai J. Rathwa. Reporting to them is the Railway Board, which has six members and a chairman.

Each of the sixteen zones 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. In addition to the zones, the six production units (PUs) are each headed by a General Manager (GM), who also reports directly to the Railway Board.

In addition to this the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE) is also headed by a GM. This is located at Allahabad. This organisation undertakes electrification projects of Indian Railway and monitors the progress of various electrification projects all over the country.

Apart from these zones and production units, a number of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) are under the administrative control of the ministry of railways. These PSU's 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 Limited

Centre for Railway Information Systems is an autonomous society under Railway Board, which is responsible for developing the major software required by Indian Railways for its operations.

[edit] Rail budget and finances

A sample ticket; Fares on the network are among the cheapest in the world.

The Railway Budget deals with the induction and improvement of existing trains and routes, the modernisation and most importantly 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 (India's Lower House). The comments of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) are non binding. Indian Railways are subject to the same audit control as other government revenue and expenditures. Based on the anticipated traffic and the projected tariff, the level of resources required for railway's capital and revenue expenditure 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 Budgetory 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, 1924, the Railway Budget is presented to the Parliament by the Union Railway Minister, two days prior to the General Budget, usually around 26 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, Financial Commissioner and other functional Members for Traffic, Engineering, Mechanical, Electrical and Staff matters. As per the 2006 budget, Indian Railways earned Rs. 54,600 crores^[8] (Rs. 546,000 million or US$12,300 million). Freight earnings increased by 10% from Rs. 30,450 cr (US$7,000 million) in the previous year. Passenger earnings, other coaching earnings and sundry other earnings increased by 7%, 19% and 56% respectively over previous year. Its year end fund balance is expected to stand at Rs. 11,280 cr (2.54 billion US$).^[9]

Around 20% of the passenger revenue is earned from the upper class segments of the passenger segment (the air-conditioned classes). The overall passenger traffic grew 7.5% in the previous year. In the first two months of India's fiscal year 2005-06 (April and May), the Railways registered a 10% growth in passenger traffic, and a 12% in passenger earnings.^[10]

A new concern faced by Indian Railways is competition from low cost airlines that has recently made its début in India. In a cost cutting move, the Railways plans to minimise unwanted cessations, and scrap unpopular routes.

[edit] Current problems

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Level crossings like these usually see a high accident rate

Indian railways suffers from deteriorating finances and lack the funds for future investment. Last year, India spent $28 billion, or 3.6% of GDP, on infrastructure. The main problem plaguing the Railways is the high accident rate which stands at about three hundred^[11] a year. 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 minimise the accident rate. Human error is the primary cause (83%)^[12] blamed for mishaps. The Konkan Railway route suffers from landslides in the monsoon season, which has caused fatal accidents in the recent past.

Contributing to the Railways' problems are the antiquated communication, safety and signalling equipment. One area of upgrading badly required is an automated signalling system to prevent crashes. A number of train accidents happened due to a manual system of signals between stations. However, the changeover to a new system would require a substantial investment. It is felt that this would be required given the gradual increase in train speeds and lengths, that would make accidents more dangerous. In the latest instances of signalling control by means of interlinked stations (e.g., Chennai - Washermanpet), failure-detection circuits are provided for each track circuit and signal circuit with notification to the signal control centres in case of problems^[13]. However, this is available in a very small subset of the total Railways.

Aging colonial-era bridges and century-old tracks also require regular maintenance and upgrading. In recent years Indian Railways has claimed that it has achieved a financial turnaround, with (unaudited) operating profits expected to improve by 83.7%.[4] Credit for this achievement has been claimed by current Indian Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav who claims to have brought a significant improvement in operating efficiency of goods traffic after he took over as Railway Minister in May 2004.[5]

The Rajdhani Express and Shatabadi Express are the fastest and most luxurious trains of Indian Raiways, though they face increasing pressure from air travel, as the trains travel only 80 kms per hour (c.f. Fastest trains in India) and their food and service is not competitive.[6]

To modernise Indian Rail and to bring it at par with the developed world, it requires massive investment to the tune of US$50-100 billion.[7]

Sixth Pay Commission has been constituted in India to review the pay structure of the Government employees and its recommendations are expected by the end of 2008 and based on its recommendations, the salaries of all Raiways officers and staff are expected to be revised with retrospective effect (w.e.f. January 01, 2006). If previous Pay Commissions are taken as indicator then this revision will not be less than 50% upwards and it may hit Raiways bottomlines severly and may vanish all the good work of the Railways.

Sanitation and use of modern technology in that area has been a problem. Although Indian Rail has announced the introduction of dry toilets in the trains, however, so far not much headway has been made and the train toilets continue to drop the wastes on the rail tracks.

[edit] See also

Fastest trains in India

Recent developments as per court documents, on the dangers of human faecal matter being discharged in the open, on to 40,000 miles of the extensive Indian railway network, may be viewed online. Comments of the public may be viewed as well at www.railwaysHit.com