Indian Railways

Indian Railways has been serving the people of India for over 150 years. During the ups and downs of country, this organization operated as a great integrating force and assisted the economic structure of India. Indian Railways also facilitated in speeding up the growth of industry and agriculture. In official terms, Indian Railways (IR) is a department of the Indian Government that works under the Ministry of Railways. The IR has been given the charge to operate the rail network in India.

The Ministry of Railways is led by the Cabinet Rank Railway Minister, whereas the Indian Railways Department is controlled by the Railway Board. The IR is not a private corporate body, yet it is striving to take up the corporate management style in recent times. Indian Railways (IR) not only enjoys the monopoly over India's rail transport, but it is also one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world. The eulogy lies in the fact that the network transports 16 million passengers and over 1 million tonnes of freight everyday.

Not only this, Indian Railways is known to be the second largest commercial or utility employer in the world with more than 1.6 million employees. Indian Railways boasts of the largest rail network in Asia. IR is acclaimed to be second largest in the world, functioning under one management system. Indian Railways is also known to have a multi gauge and multi traction system. The rail tracks pass through the length and breadth of India, covering an estimated length of 108,805 kilometers (67,608 miles).

Indian Rail Ways maneuvers both long distance and suburban rail systems. IR runs around 14,444 trains daily on its rail tracks. Indian Railways has an approximate number of 7739 locomotives, 39,263 coaches, 2,22,147 freight wagons, 700 repair shops, 2300 good sheds and more than 7000 stations. Indian Railways appeared as an efficient system with the onset of computerization system. Since the first train in 1850's, IR has worked hard to sprawl one of the largest railway networks in the world.