The major railway zones of Indian Railways train routes are Eastern, Western, Central, Southern and Northern. In March 2002, the South Western Zone was 'inagurated' with some publicity, although there was no office space for the zone at Hubli; some staff at Bangalore were assigned to the new zone with, apparently, little to do. With this, any aspiration Kerala would have with respect to railways will die a cruel death with any hopes of the state getting its deserved due buried for good, prompting celebrations in all surrounding regions. Head quartered at Hajipur, the zone covers Danapur, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Dhanbad and Sonpur.
Also See Train Route - Train Route, Schedule, Status & Timings
With these many zones, the Indian Railways is truly an amazing network that keeps our country alive and thriving. The proposed bifurcation is also going to affect the trade union movement in the railways. This zone was created in 1951 as an original railway zone after the independence.
Also see Train Stations - Indian Railway Stations
The railway system is divided into six operating divisions: Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Ratlam and Mumbai. Ratlam has emerged as the growing division for western railways. The interstate boundaries shown between Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya shown on this map are as interpreted from the North-eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971, but have yet to be verified. Western Indian Railways : This Indian railways zone is amongst the most hustling and lively rail networks of the country. Huge number of people who want to make they career in Indian railways eagerly will look for recruitment notification. The ungauged system of railways assures larger capacity, higher speed and cheaper transportation. In the next few months, the Railways hope to improve their punctuality to the 80 per cent target in all zones.
Each of the sixteen zones, as well as the Kolkata Metro, is headed by a General Manager (GM) who reports directly to the Railway Board. Indian Railways' move to the new accounting system comes under its ‘Mission Beyond Book-keeping' initiative. Southern Indian Railways : This is the first zone formed after India got liberated from British Rule. With the creation of new zones the divisions have also been reorganized, and new divisions have been created in 2002 (some came into effect in April 2003), bringing the total number of divisions to 67.
Indian railway system is the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. North Eastern Railway - The North Eastern Railways can trace its history back to 3rd March 1859, when the first railway line was laid between Allahabad and Kanpur. And most people I have seen are not only dead against the PRZ they also want the two divisions of Kerala be merged into a single division and rot further! On April 1, 2003, the West Central Railway was reconstituted from the Jabalpur and Bhopal divisions of the Central Railway (CR) and the reorganized Kota division of the Western Railway (WR). Northern Indian Railways : It is one of the nine older zones of Indian Railways.
Immediately after the Independence, the Railway Board prepared a plan in 1950 for regrouping the Indian Railways into six zones, namely the Southern Zone (9,654 route km), Central Zone (8,689 route km), Western Zone (9,122 route km), North Zone (9,667 route km), North-Eastern Zone (7,726 route km) and Eastern Zone (9,109 route km). The Minister of State for Railways, Manoj Sinha, has stated that the punctuality of trains is something that is now a key focus and all zones have been given specific targets to reach. Having Delhi as its head quarter, the zone includes Ambala, Firozpur, Moradabad, Lucknow and Udhampur.
Southern Indian Railways: The Southern Railway zone was the principal zone that was made after freedom from British oppression. Northern Railways previously consisted of eight divisional zones: Allahabad , Bikaner , Jodhpur , Delhi , Moradabad , Ferozpur , Ambala , and Lucknow , spanning most of North India. Today the strength has come down to 15,30,000 due to restructuring of Railways and the right-sizing exercise.
Under the present cash-based accounting system followed by the Indian Railways, receipts are recorded during the period when they are received, and expenses are recorded in the period when they are actually paid. In 2003, this zone was created to connect and improve management of railways in the coastal areas of the east. The Himalayan region in the north is almost entirely devoid of railways due to its rugged topography.
The present N. E. Railway (NER), after re-organisation of Railway Zones in 2002, comprises three Divisions - Varanasi, Lucknow & Izatnagar. The Research, Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) at Lucknow is the R & D wing of Indian Railways. The South West Railway was originally to have been based at Bangalore, but later 3/00 it was decided to make Hubli its headquarters (this involved a fair amount of agitation and political action in Hubli as well). Again, if any of these two demands are accorded to, the Peninsular Railway Zone will be dead even before it was born.
North Central Railway - Established on 1st April, 2003, the North Central Railways is one of the seventeen railway zones in India. Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta railway station has the longest name among all stations on the Indian Railway system.
Meanwhile, the construction of the railway lines was going on in eastern part of the country and the first section of the East Indian Railway, from Haora to Hugli, a distance of 37 km was inaugurated on 15 August, 1854. Each of these divisions is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager, a Senior AdministrativeGrade officer of the rank of Joint Secretary to Government of India.
Apart from just the Indian Railways Train this app also contains details of - Delhi Metro, Jaipur Metro, Kolkata Metros and even the local trains of cities like - Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and many more popular Indian cities. That's why with a mind blowing 68 divisions, Indian Railways is one of the widest networks in the world. Then came 2002-2003 when a slew of zones were inaugurated, most of which were cantered geographically around state boundaries - SWR (Karnataka), ECoR (Odisha), ECR (Bihar/Jharkhand), NWR (Rajasthan), SECR (Chhattisgarh) etc.
With its headquarters in Kolkata, the Eastern Zone is divided further into four divisions namely Mald, Howrah, Asansol and Sealdah for better working. Currently the trial is going on the route to ensure that the section becomes the first discharge free zone in railways. Sources in the Railways have confirmed that estimates are being prepared for administrative costs, staff division, zonal jurisdiction and also evaluation of the assets. Train numbers still 5/03 follow the old scheme with the numeric identifiers for the 9 older zones.
With a huge number of railroad stations the nation over, Indian Railways is the principal choice for exchange of products and people. Created in 1951, head quartered at Mumbai, this zone covers Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Ratlam, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Gandhidham. Sources said the audit has been triggered after a web page of the Personnel department in Bhusawal Division of Central railways was hacked allegedly by terror outfit al-Qaeda in March this year. After the independence, the Indian Railways has undergone some structural changes.
With massive scale of modernization and associated developments is making Indian Railway one of the most vital employers in terms of quality and volume of jobs. Mazdoor Sangh owing political allegiance to BMS, the trade union wing of BJP, as soon as they produce certificates of membership strength of 30% of the total non-gazetted employees of the respective zones. Head quartered at Kolkata, the zone includes Howrah, Asansol, Malda and Sealdah stations.
With the re-organisation of zones by the Indian Railways, Northern Railway zone came to its present form on 14 April 1952 and it now consists of five divisional zones. The Guwahati Thiruvananthapuram Express holds the record for being the most unreliable long-distance train on the Indian Railways network. The Kolkata Metro (Calcutta Metro) is owned and operated by IR, but does not belong to any of the zones; it is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.
These nine railway zones remained operative for about three decades and proved very effective in administrating the railway system. Is a conglomerate of regional political formations, regional sentiments get precedence over the all India perspective of the Railways. Suresh Prabhu on Friday that was attended by Secretary (IT) Aruna Sharma and the Director General of Indian Computer Emergency Response System (CERT-IN). Diesel shed, Tughlaqabad has the distinction of being the first diesel shed to get ISO 14000 certification on Indian Railway.
There are different zones and divisions of Indian railways in the Indian Railways System through which they are differentiated. The divisions would be Mangalore, Palakkad and Trivandrum, with zonal Headquarters at Mangalore or Trivandrum. More recently, the Metro Rail in Kolkata was made a zone and the new zone under active consideration now will be the 18th. Until mid-2002 not much had been done for these new zones yet beyond some contracts for office space and the appointment of some officers.
South Western Railway - The South Western Railways zone was formed from the merging of the reorganized Hubli division of the South Central Railways with the Bangalore and Mysore divisions of the Southern Railways. Indian railway is the largest network in India which is recruiting many people to the post available. The plateau region of south India is not as much suitable for railways as the North Plain area.
East Coast Railway - The East Coast Railways were inaugurated on 8th August 1996 with only the Khurda Road division as a part of this zone. The total route kilometers of the new zone would be spanning across Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Zone is isolated further into four divisions for better working - these divisions incorporate Mald, Howrah, Asansol and Sealdah.