Important information about Indian Railways

Indian Railways started its commercial service on 16 April 1853 when the first passenger train was
run over a stretch of 34 kilometres from Mumbai to Thane, Maharashtra. It was operated under
Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) and commissioned at the time of Lord Dalhousie, then
Governor General of India.
First railway foundry was set up at Jamalpur (Bihar) in 1893.
Lady Curzon was first locomotive build in India, at Ajmer in 1899.
Deshbandhu was first steam engine build in India, at Chittaranjan (WB ) in 1950.
Lokmanya was first 1500 DC electric locomotive built in India in 1961.
Indian Railways was nationalised as one unit in 1951.
It is the world's seventh largest employer with over 1.376 million employees as of last published
figures in 2013.
There are 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB) in India which recruit Group B, C and D
employees. The recruitment of Group 'A' gazetted employees of Railways is carried out by the Union
Public Service Commission through exams conducted by it.
As of 31 March 2016, the total route length is 67,312 km and nearly 42% is electrified .
Uttar Pradesh has largest Railway network in India.
Indian Railways uses four gauges:
i) 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Broad Gauge (BG), which is also called Indian gauge,
ii) 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 38 in) Metre Gauge (MG),
iii) 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) Narrow Gauge (NG), and
iv) 610 mm (2 ft) Narrow Gauge.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, KalkaShimla Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway use narrow
and meter gauges. These are collectively known as Mountain Railways of India.
There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Indian Railways The Chatrapati Shivaji
Terminus (Mumbai) and the Mountain Railways of India.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation uses standard gauze 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in) . Delhi Metro is a
separate urban mass rapid transit system not owned by Indian Railways.
The coaches used in Indian Railways are produced at Integral Coach Factory (Chennai) and Rail
Coach Factory (Kapurthala, Punjab).
Indian Railways is divided into 17 zones. In 2010, Kolkata Metro was given the status of the 17th
zone of Indian Railways. It was started in 1984. Also, Kolkata Metro is the smallest zone in Indian
Railways and first underground rail network in India.
Northern zone is the largest zone of Indian Railways. It has about 6807 km route length and covers
the state of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, NCT of Delhi, Uttarakhand,
and Uttar Pradesh.
The Konkan Railway is a subsidiary zone of the Indian Railways which was commissioned in 1998.
It runs between Roha (Maharashtra) and Mangaluru (Karnataka).
Indian Railways is building the worlds highest railway bridge of height 359 meters over the Chenab
River on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Gatimaan Express which runs between Delhi to Agra, is the fastest train in India. It is a semi highspeed train, with a 5,400 horse power electric locomotive and top speed of 160 kmph, which covers
the nearly 200 km distance between Delhis Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station and Agra
Cantonment station in about 100 minutes.

 Vivek Express which runs between Dibrugarh (Assam) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) has the
longest run in terms of distance and time. It covers 4,233 kilometres with a running time of about 80
hours and 15 minutes.
The Fairy Queen, plying between New Delhi and Alwar in Rajasthan, is the oldest functioning
steam engine in the world. It was built in England in 1855.
Gorakhpur Railways Junction (U.P.) has worlds longest railway platform with the length of 1366.33
metres.
Present Railways Minister is Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu.
"Important Railways PSUs"
Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) Ltd.
Indian Railways Construction (IRCON) Corp. Ltd.
Container Corporation (CONCOR) of India Ltd.
Railtel Corporation of India Ltd.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways
that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the Indian railways.
Indian Railways has a full-fledged organisation known as Research Designs and Standards
Organisation (RDSO), located at Lucknow for all research, designs and standardisation tasks.
"Railways in World: Key Facts"
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working public railway. It was founded in
England in 1758.
The United States railway network, with an operating route length over 250,000 km, is the biggest
in the world, followed by China, Russia and India.
The Trans-Siberian Railway (St. Petersburg-Vladivostok line, Russia) spanning a length of 9,289
km, is the longest railway line in the world.
At Present, Shanghai Maglev Bullet train is fastest passenger train in the world with the speed of
268 miles/hour. Moreover, Japanese Maglev train from Central Japan Railways has reached the
speed of 374 miles/hour on a test track, covering 1.1 miles in 10.8 seconds and hitting a new world
record.
"Highlights of Railway Budget 2016"
Eliminate all unmanned level crossings by 2020.
Enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system from 2,000 tickets/min to 7,200/min with supporting 1.2
lakh concurrent users now, as opposed to 40,000 earlier. Besides, WiFi services at 100 stations this
year and 400 stations next year.
Deen Dayal coaches for long distance trains for unreserved passengers. These coaches will
include potable water and higher number of mobile charging points.
Broad Gauge Lumding-Silchar section in Assam, connecting Barak Valley with rest of country.
Also, Mizoram and Manipur to be connected through broad gauge.
Under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, the total of 17000 bio-toilets and additional toilets to be built at
475 stations in this financial year.