introduction to indian railways

8/3/2019 Introduction to Indian Railways

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Introduction to Indian Railways

Indian Railways (IR) is the state-owned railway company of India. Indian Railways had, untilvery recently, a monopoly on the countrys rail transport. It is one of the largest and busiest railnetworks in the world, transporting just over six billion passengers and almost 750 million

tonnes of freight annually. IR is the worlds largest commercial or utility employer, with morethan 1.6 million employees.

The railways traverse through the length and width of the country; the routes cover a total lengthof 63,940 km (39,230 miles). As of 2005 IR owns a total of 216,717 wagons, 39,936 coaches and7,339 locomotives and runs a total of 14,244 trains daily, including about 8,002 passenger trains.

Railways were first introduced to India in 1853. By 1947, the year of Indias independence, therewere forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, becoming one ofthe largest networks in the world. Indian Railways operates both long distance and suburban railsystems.

Background

The development of IR had its roots in the 1800s, when India was a British colony. The BritishEast India Company and later, the British colonial governments were credited with starting arailway system in India.

The British found it difficult to traverse great distances between different places in India. Theyfelt the need to connect those places with trains to speed up the journey as well as to make itmore comfortable than travel by road in the great heat. They also sought a more efficient meansto transfer raw materials like cotton and wheat from the hinterlands of the country to the ports

located in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, from where they would be transported to factories inEngland. Besides, the mid-1800s were a period of mutiny and struggle for independence in India,with uprisings in several parts of the country.

The British leaders wanted to be able to transfer soldiers quickly to places of unrest. Railwaysseemed to be the ideal solution to all these problems.

Work began on the development of railway systems in India in the early 1850s. Initially, trainswere used to transport material between different places. The first commercial passenger train inIndia ran between Bombay and Thane (places in western India) on April 16, 1853.

The distance of 34 kilometers was covered in about 75 minutes. Indians were initiallyapprehensive of accepting railways as a means of travel, but soon overcame that fear andrailways gained popularity. Soon, railway lines began to be laid in other parts of the country,mostly by private British companies, and the major regions in India were connected by rail. To promote the construction of railway lines in India, the British Parliament introduced theguarantee system.


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Under this system, any company that constructed railway lines in India was given a guarantee ofa five percent return per annum on the capital invested. The company also had the right to pullout from the venture and receive compensation from the government at any time if it was notsatisfied with the returns. This helped accelerate the development of railways in the country.

A number of railway companies were incorporated between 1855 and 1870. Most of themoperated at a regional level. By the beginning of the 1870s, the total track coverage in India was4000 miles. In addition to commercial objectives, railways also began to play a social role inIndia. When there were famines in several parts of the country between 1870 and 1880, railwaysplayed a very important role in providing relief to the affected areas.

By the end of 1880, the total track coverage increased to 9000 miles. In 1880, the DarjeelingSteam Tramway started operating (the name was changed to Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in1881). This railway track was considered one of the greatest engineering feats in the history ofIR, crossing as it did, rough and dangerous mountain terrain at a steep gradient.

In 1890, the British Government passed the Railways Act, to govern the construction andoperation of railways in India. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were nearly 25,000miles of railway track in the country.

Railway zones

The Map of India above shows the different railway zones in India. The zones are numbered inthe map. The red dots are the zonal headquarters. For administrative purposes, IndianRailways is divided into sixteen zones.

Given below is the table showing these 16 zones. Konkan Railway*(KR) is constituted as aseparately incorporated railway, with its headquarters at Belapur CBD (Navi Mumbai). It comesunder 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 thezones. It is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.
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Sr. No. Name Abbr. HeadquartersDate

Established

1. Northern Railway NR Delhi April 14, 1952

2.North Eastern

RailwayNER Gorakhpur 1952

3.Northeast Frontier

RailwayNFR Maligaon(Guwahati) 1958

4. Eastern Railway ER Kolkata April, 1952

5.South Eastern

RailwaySER Kolkata 1955

6.South Central

RailwaySCR 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

RailwaySWR Hubli April 1, 2003

11.North Western

RailwayNWR Jaipur Oct 1, 2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorakhpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Frontier_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Frontier_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guwahatihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secunderabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hublihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oct_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorakhpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Frontier_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Frontier_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guwahatihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Eastern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secunderabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Railway_(India)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hublihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Western_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oct_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Railway_(India)


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12. West Central Railway WCR Jabalpur April 1, 2003

13. North Central RailwayNCR Allahabad April 1, 2003

14.South East Central

RailwaySECR Bilaspur, CG April 1, 2003

15. East Coast Railway ECoR Bhubaneswar April 1, 200316. East Central Railway ECR Hajipur Oct 1, 200217. Konkan Railway* KR Navi Mumbai Jan 26, 1998

Passenger services

Indian Railways operates 8,702 passenger trains and transports around five billion annuallyacross twenty-seven states and three union territories (Delhi, Pondicherry and Chandigarh).Sikkim is the only state not connected.

The passenger division is the most preferred form of long distance transport in most of thecountry. In South India andNorth-East India however, buses are the preferred mode of transportfor medium to long distance transport.

A standard passenger train consists of eighteen coaches, but some popular trains can have up to24 coaches. Coaches are designed to accommodate anywhere from 18 to 72 passengers, but mayactually accommodate many more during the holiday seasons and on busy routes. The coaches inuse 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 tonine of these type coaches are usually coupled. Air conditioned coaches are also attached, and astandard train may have between three and five air-conditioned coaches.

Overcrowding is the most widely faced problem with Indian Railways. In the holiday seasons oron long weekends, trains are usually packed more than their prescribed limit. Ticket-less travel,which results in large losses for the IR, is also an additional problem faced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabalpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Coast_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_territorieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pondicherryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandigarhhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkimhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-East_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-East_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_(rail)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestibulehttp://yoginvora.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/monopoly-of-indian-railways-iim-case-study/4es-2-2/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabalpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Coast_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Central_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_territorieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pondicherryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandigarhhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkimhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-East_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_(rail)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestibule


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Production Services

The interior of an Express Train in India. Food is being served by an Indian Railways employee.

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 isimport substitution of expensive technology related products. This was relevant when the generalstate of the national engineering industry was immature.

Production Units, the manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways, are managed directly by theministry. The General Managers of the PUs report to the Railway Board. The Production Unitsare,

Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi

Responsible for manufacturing all the mainline diesel-electrics used for passenger and freighttraffic. The plant also produces diesel-electric shunters. Currently the factory is also producinglocomotives in collaboration with General Motors, USA.

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan

Chittaranjan manufactures Electric Locomotives. Traditionally, the locomotives made by CLWuse DC traction. In recent times, CLW has manufactures locomotives with AC-AC transmission.

Diesel-Loco Modernisation Works, Patiala

Earlier called Diesel Component Works, DMW makes key sub-assemblies for DieselLocomotives. It also does heavy repair and overhaul of engines and locomotives.

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai
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The first factory to make coaches for the Indian Railways. The coaches were monocoquestructures.

Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala

The second coach factory is a more modern plant and has a much more flexible automation.

Wheel & Axle Plant, Bangalore

Makes the cast wheels for wagons and other rolling stock. Axles are forged and machined in thesame plant. Most output is sent out as finished and pressed wheel & axle sets.

Rail Spring Karkhana, Gwalior

Performance

The performance of Production Units during 2004-05, was as under,

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan manufactured 90 BG electric locomotivesincluding 22 state-of-the-art 3-phase 6000 HP electric locos.

Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi produced 121 BG diesel locomotives including 15indigenous high power 4000 HP GM locomotives. In addition, 4 diesel locomotives weresupplied to Non Railway Customers.

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai manufactured 1,119 coaches including 112 ElectricMultiple Units (EMUs).

Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala manufactured 1,201 coaches including 77 light weightLHB coaches with higher passenger comfort and amenities.

Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore produced 32,732 wheel-sets. It also manufactured 95,125wheels and 49,502 axles. It sold products to the tune of Rs.18.39 crore to NCRs thusearning a profit of approx. Rs.173.69 lakh.

Diesel Loco Modernisation Workshop, Patiala successfully upgraded 74 nos. 2600 HPWDM-2 diesel electric locomotives to 3100 HP thus increasing the hauling capacity tothe extent of 3 to 4 additional coaches. DMW exported spares worth Rs.130.27 lakh tovarious countries.

Import content in the Railway Production Units expressed as percentage of totalproduction cost is roughly 2%. Import substitution is one of the main objectives of theproduction units.


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MONOPOLY

In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monopolium Greek language monos, one +

polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of aproduct or service. Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition for the goodor service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods.

Monopoly should be distinguished from monopsony, in which there is only one buyer of theproduct or service; it should also, strictly, be distinguished from the (similar) phenomenon of acartel. In a monopoly a single firm is the sole provider of a product or service; in a cartel acentralized institution is set up to partially coordinate the actions of several independentproviders (which is a form of oligopoly).

Primary characteristics of a monopoly

Single Sellers

A pure monopoly is an industry in which a single firm is the sole producer of a good or the soleprovider of a service. This is usually caused by barriers to entry.


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No Close Substitutes

The product or service is unique in ways which go beyond brand identity, and cannot be easilyreplaced (a monopoly on water from a certain spring, sold under a certain brand name, is not atrue monopoly; neither is Coca-Cola, even though it is differentiated from its competition in

flavor).

Price Maker

In a pure monopoly a single firm controls the total supply of the whole industry and is able toexert a significant degree of control over the price, by changing the quantity supplied (anexample of this would be the situation of Viagra before competing drugs emerged). In subtotalmonopolies (for example diamonds or petroleum at present) a single organization controlsenough of the supply that even if it limits the quantity, or raises prices, the other suppliers will beunable to make up the difference and take significant amounts of market share.

Blocked Entry

The reason a pure monopolist has no competitors is that certain barriers keep would-becompetitors from entering the market. Depending upon the form of the monopoly these barrierscan be economic, technological, legal (e.g. copyrights, patents), violent (competing businessesare shut down by force), or of some other type of barrier that completely prevents other firmsfrom entering the market.

Price setting for unregulated monopolies

In economics a company is said to have monopoly power if it faces a downward sloping demandcurve (see supply and demand). This is in contrast to a price taker that faces a horizontal demand
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curve. A price taker cannot choose the price that they sell at, since if they set it above theequilibrium price, they will sell none, and if they set it below the equilibrium price, they willhave an infinite number of buyers (and be making less money than they could if they sold at theequilibrium price). In contrast, a business with monopoly power can choose the price they wantto sell at. If they set it higher, they sell less. If they set it lower, they sell more.

In most real markets with claims, falling demand associated with a price increase is due partly tolosing customers to other sellers and partly to customers who are no longer willing or able to buythe product. In a pure monopoly market, only the latter effect is at work, and so, particularly forinflexible commodities such as medical care, the drop in units sold as prices rise may be muchless dramatic than one might expect.

If a monopoly can only set one price it will set it where marginal cost (MC) equals marginalrevenue (MR) as seen on the diagram on the right. This can be seen on a big supply and demanddiagram for many criticism of monopoly. This will be at the quantity Qm; and at the price Pm.This is above the competitive price of Pc and with a smaller quantity than the competitive

quantity of Qc. The offensive monopoly gains is the shaded in area labeled profit (note that thisdiagram looks only at the case where there is no fixed cost. If there were a fixed cost, the averagecost curve should be used instead).

As long as the price elasticity of demand (in absolute value) for most customers is less than one,it is very advantageous to increase the price: the seller gets more money for less goods. With anincrease of the price, the price elasticity tends to rise, and in the optimum mentioned above itwill be above one for most customers. A formula gives the relation between price, marginal costof production and demand elasticity which maximizes a monopoly profit: (known as Lernerindex). The monopolists monopoly power is given by the vertical distance between the pointwhere the marginal cost curve (MC) intersects with the marginal revenue curve (MR) and the

demand curve. The longer the vertical distance, (the more inelastic the demand curve) the biggerthe monopoly power, and thus larger profits.

The economy as a whole loses out when monopoly power is used in this way, since the extraprofit earned by the firm will be smaller than the loss in consumer surplus. This difference isknown as a deadweight loss.

Freight


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A single line rail bridge

IR carries a huge variety of goods ranging from mineral ores, agricultural produce, petroleum,milk and vehicles. 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, anduses these profits to cross-subsidise the loss-making passenger sector. However, competitionfrom trucks which offer cheaper rates has seen a decrease in freight traffic in recent years. Sincethe 1990s, Indian Railways has switched from small consignments to larger container movementwhich has helped speed up its operations. Most of its freight earnings come from such rakescarrying bulk goods such as coal, cement, food grains and iron ore.

Indian Railways also transports vehicles over long distances. Trucks that carry goods to aparticular location are hauled back by trains saving the trucking company on unnecessary fuelexpenses. Refrigerated vans are also available in many areas. The Green Van is a special typeused to transport fresh food and vegetables. Recently Indian Railways introduced the specialContainer Rajdhani or CONRAJ, for high priority freight. The highest speed notched up for afreight 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 wasintroduced recently to improve the performance of freight trains. Companies are being allowed torun their own container trains. The first length of an 11,000km freight corridor linking Indiasbiggest cities has recently been approved. The railways has increased load limits for the systems

220,000 freight wagons by 11%, legalizing something that was already happening. Due toincrease 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 theturnaround times have added some 24% to freight revenues.

Notable trains and achievements


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TheDarjeeling Himalayan Railwayis a World Heritage Site, and one of the few steam enginesin operation in India.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a narrow gauge trainwith a steam locomotive is classified as a World Heritage Siteby UNESCO. The route starts atSiliguri in the plains in West Bengal and traverses tea gardens en route to Darjeeling, a hillstation at an elevation of 2,134 metres (7,000 ft). The highest station in this route is Ghum.

TheNilgiri Mountain Railway, in theNilgiri Hills in southern India, is also classified as a WorldHeritage Site by UNESCO. It is also the only rack railway in India. The Chatrapati ShivajiTerminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station in Mumbai is another World HeritageSite operated by Indian Railways.

The Rajdhani Express is a series of trains that journey to and from the CapitalNew Delhi. Shownhere are two Rajdhani Trains approaching each other

The Palace on Wheels is a specially designed train, lugged by a steam engine, for promotingtourism in Rajasthan. The Maharashtra government did try and introduce the Deccan Odysseyalong the Konkan route, but it did not enjoy the same success as the Palace on Wheels. TheSamjhauta Express was a train that ran between India and Pakistan. However, hostilities betweenthe two nations in 2001 saw the line being closed. It was reopened when the hostilities subsidedin 2004. Another train connecting Khokhrapar (Pakistan) and Munabao (India) is the TharExpress that restarted operations on February 18, 2006 since being closed down after the 1965
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siligurihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bengalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeelinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Hillshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Hillshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatrapati_Shivaji_Terminushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatrapati_Shivaji_Terminushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajdhani_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_on_Wheelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_on_Wheelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Odysseyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samjhauta_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khokhraparhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munabaohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1965http://yoginvora.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/monopoly-of-indian-railways-iim-case-study/4es-2-2/http://yoginvora.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/monopoly-of-indian-railways-iim-case-study/4es-2-2/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siligurihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bengalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeelinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Hillshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatrapati_Shivaji_Terminushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatrapati_Shivaji_Terminushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajdhani_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_on_Wheelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Odysseyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samjhauta_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khokhraparhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munabaohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1965


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Indo-Pak war. The Kalka Shimla Railway till recently featured in the Guinness Book of WorldRecordsfor offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometers.

The Lifeline Express is a special train popularly known as the Hospital-on-Wheels whichprovides 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 patientward. The train travels around the country, staying at a location for about two months beforemoving elsewhere.

Among the famous locomotives, the Fairy Queen is the oldest running locomotive in the worldtoday, though the distinction of the oldest surviving locomotive belongs toJohn Bull. Kharagpurrailway station also has the distinction of being the worlds longest railway platform at 1072 m(3,517 ft). The Ghum station along theToy Train route is the second highest railway station inthe world to be reached by a steam locomotive.[5] Indian Railways operates 7,566 locomotives;37,840 Coaching vehicles and 222,147 freight wagons. There are a total of 6,853 stations; 300yards; 2,300 goods-sheds; 700 repair shops and a total workforce of 1.54 million.

The Deccan odyssey is a new line of tourist trains that

travel across the Indian State ofMaharashtraThe shortest named station is Ib and the longest is Sri Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta. TheHimsagar Express, between Kanyakumari and Jammu Tawi, has the longest run in terms ofdistance and time on Indian Railways network. It covers 3,745 km (2,327 miles) in about 74hours and 55 minutes. The Trivandrum Rajdhani, between Delhis Nizamuddin Station andTrivandrum, 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 of140 km/h (87 mph) on theFaridabad-Agra section. The fastest speed attained by any train is184 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 suitedfor higher speeds.

Organisational structure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1965http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalka_Shimla_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Recordshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Recordshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Recordshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeline_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeline_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Queenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_(locomotive)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharagpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways#_note-4%23_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deccan_odyssey&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deccan_odyssey&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himsagar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanyakumarihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadodarahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faridabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faridabadhttp://yoginvora.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/monopoly-of-indian-railways-iim-case-study/4es-2-2/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1965http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalka_Shimla_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Recordshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Recordshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeline_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Queenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_(locomotive)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharagpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railwayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways#_note-4%23_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deccan_odyssey&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himsagar_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanyakumarihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadodarahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faridabad


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The headquarters of the Indian Railways in Delhi

Indian Railways is a publicly owned company controlled by the Government of India, via theMinistry of Railways. The ministry is currently headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, the UnionMinister 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 achairman.

Each of the sixteen zones is headed by a General Manager (GM) who reports directly to theRailway Board. The zones are further divided into divisions under the control of DivisionalRailway Managers (DRM). The divisional officers of engineering, mechanical, electrical, signal& telecommunication, accounts, personnel, operating, commercial and safety branches report tothe 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 thetrain movement through the track territory under their stations administration. In addition to thezones, there are six production units (PUs) each headed by a General Manager (GM), who also

report directly to the Railway Board.

These production units are:

1. Chittaranjan Locomotive Works: Chittaranjan2. Diesel Locomotive Works: Varanasi3. Integral Coach Factory: Perambur (Near Chennai)4. Rail Coach Factory: Kapurthala5. Rail Wheel Factory: Yelahanka (Near Bangalore)6. Diesel Modernisation Works: Patiala

In addition to this the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE) is also headed bya GM. This is located at Allahabad. This organisation undertakes electrification projects ofIndian 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) areunder the administrative control of the ministry of railways. These PSUs are:

1. Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation
http://managementfunda.com/download-projects/projects/http://yoginvora.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/monopoly-of-indian-railways-iim-case-study/4es-2-2/http://managementfunda.com/download-projects/projects/


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2. Konkan Railway Corporation3. Indian Railway Finance Corporation4. Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation5. Railtel Corporation of India Telecommunication Networks6. RITES Ltd. Consulting Division of Indian Railways

7. IRCON International Ltd. Construction Division8. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited

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

Rail budget and finances

The Railway Budget deals with the induction and improvement of existing trains and routes, themodernisation and most importantly the tariff for freight and passenger travel. The Parliamentdiscusses the policies and allocations proposed in the budget. The budget needs to be passed by a

simple majority in the Lok Sabha (Indias Lower House). The comments of the Rajya Sabha(Upper House) are non binding. Indian Railways are subject to the same audit control as othergovernment revenue and expenditures. Based on the anticipated traffic and the projected tariff,the level of resources required for railways 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) andthe rest from Budgetory support from the Central Government. Indian Railways pays dividend tothe Central Government for the capital invested by the Central Government.

As per the Separation Convention, 1924, the Railway Budget is presented to the Parliament bythe 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 thereceipt and expenditure of the Railways are also shown in the General Budget, since they are apart and parcel of the total receipts and expenditure of the Government of India. This documentserves as a balance sheet of operations of the Railways during the previous year and lists outplans for expansion for the current year.

The formation of policy and overall control of the railways is vested in Railway Boardcomprising the Chairman, Financial Commissioner and other functional Members for Traffic,Engineering, Mechanical, Electrical and Staff matters. As per the 2006 budget, Indian Railwaysearned Rs. 54,600 crores (Rs. 546,000 million or US$12,300 million). Freight earnings increasedby 10% from Rs. 30,450 cr (US$7,000 million) in the previous year. Passenger earnings, othercoaching earnings and sundry other earnings increased by 7%, 19% and 56% respectively overprevious year. Its year end fund balance is expected to stand at Rs. 11,280 cr (US $2.54 billion).

Around 20% of the passenger revenue is earned from the upper class segments of the passengersegment (the air-conditioned classes). The overall passenger traffic grew 7.5% in the previousyear. In the first two months of Indias fiscal year 2005-06 (April and May), the Railwaysregistered a 10% growth in passenger traffic, and a 12% in passenger earnings.


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

Lalus railways:

There are few political leaders in the country who have been more sharply criticised than

Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. But now, there is a genuine sense of respect for whatLalu has been able to achieve for Indian railways, which is looking healthier than it has in years.

In fact, Lalu and his Railways Ministry have been so impressive that they are now a case studyfor the Indian Institute of Management (IIM).

When he wrestled the Railways Ministry from Ram Vilas Paswan, many had written the obituaryof the Indian railways, saying Lalu would drive it into the ground. But hes proved the skepticswrong.

Amazing feat

The Indian railways, an organisation heading towards bankruptcy three years ago when he tookover, now has a surplus revenue of Rs. 11,000 crore, a feat that has won grudging respect forLalu.

And with success has come recognition. IIM-A is taking the railways success as a case study.

Effective steps

Lalu achieved the feat by taking simple steps like competitive passenger fares

and reducing the wagons turnaround time from seven to five days.

He also raised the carrying capacity of goods trains from 3,200 tonnes to 4,000 tonnes, which ledto higher freight earnings.

This is just the start. We will soon have a surplus of Rs 20,000 crore. We will do more, you seeour profits will climb even further, added a confident Lalu.


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Railways officials are in a celebratory mood, as they know their organisation has turned thecorner and the architect of this success is the railways minister.

Turning to the Aam Aadmi slogan, the minister said the railways will soon create economicopportunities for the farmers. We plan to create a public-private partnership model, wherein

retail stores would be set up at around 7,500 stations across the country. It will facilitateprocurement, distribution and marketing. We plan to involve corporates in this project. Globaltenders will be invited, he said.He also talked about providing rail connectivity to all the ports in the country. We intend toease the congestion on the road. This would mainly facilitate the car exports from India, he said.While the minister termed the bullet train project unviable for the country, he

told media persons that the ministry plans to take measures to tighten security in the system.We plan to introduce close circuit TVs and metal detectors at all the major stations. We alsoplan to restrict entry at the platforms. Only passengers will be allowed to enter the platforms,

he said.The minister also stated that he had big plans to enable travellers to get a worldclass experience.Starting with stations at major cities like Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Patna thenew station will have underground cross-over system to reach different platforms instead of anoverbridge.Taking a dig at his predecessor Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad said, I am aware what he has beensaying about our turnaround story and the situation in Bihar. Let us see if he is able to deliver. Idont think he can.However, he steered clear of making any controversial statements. When asked about his viewson reservation, he said, Today is not the day to discuss it.

introduction to indian railways

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