INDIAN RAILWAYSintroduction

by RP Saxena

INDIAN RAILWAYS

• Indian Railways is more than150 year old

• It is largest railway system in world under one management

• It is a lifeline of country

• It is biggest civilian employer in the world

• No strike in last 30 years in spite of 17 lakh workers

• Always targeted by public during any rally, agitation etc

GENERAL

Indian Railways covers 64000 of route km along length & width of the country

• It runs 12000 trains every day

• it carry 1.5 crore passengers & 17 lakh tonnes of goods every day

• It is fuel efficient system

INFRASTRUCTURE• Railways has 7500 engines,38000 coaches & about 2.5

lakh of wagons

• 7000 stations & about 500 computerized passenger reservation centers

• 1 lakh km of track

• 15 lakh employee(10 lakh in Group C) including 10000 officers

• 6 lakh staff Qrs

• Biggest township Kharagpur has 12000 qrs

ORIGIN & DEVELOPMENT• 1947 Post partition 21 railway systems----10

owned by the GOI and balance by princely states. Total integration of princely state railways completed by first April 1950

• 1951 Southern, Central and Western Railways SR, CR&WR created

• 1952 Northern, Eastern and North Eastern Railways, NR,ER&NER created

• 1955 South Eastern Railways, SER created • 1958 North East Frontier Railways, NFR created• 1966 South Central Railways, SCR created 2002

East Central & North Western Railways created in October

• 2003 South Western , West Central, North Central, South Eastern Central & East Coast Railway, SWR, WCR, NCR, SECR and ECoR created in April 2003

Speed

• Shatabdi trains can run at maxm speed of 140 kmph

• Rajdhani maxm 130 kmph• Superfast trains 110 kmph• Other mail & exp 110kmph but

more stoppage• Goods train maxm 100 kmph

ORGANISATION

3 tier Management • Top – Railway board or Ministry of

Railways headed by Chairman Railway Board

• Middle -16 zones headed by General Managers

• Bottom -68 divisions headed by Division Railway Managers

Budget

Railway earns mainly from goods traffic

• Daily expenditure is about Rs 100 cr (42% staff, 18% fuels)

• Daily earnings Rs140 cr

• daily loss on uneconomic branch line Rs 8 cr

Department

• Railway has its own cadre & consists of 9 Deptt (8 wheel & 1 brake)

• Technical- 4 Engineering,mechanical, electrical & signal

• Non technical- 5 Traffic, personel,,stores, security&

finance

Production units

• Chitranjan loco works at Chitranjan for electrical engine

• Diesel loco works,Varanasi for Diesel Engine

• Coach factory at Perambur & Kapurthala• Railwheel factory at Bangalore• Diesel componet works at Patiala

PSU

• Indian railway catering & tourism co (IRCTC)• Indian railway constn comp (IRCON)• Rail india technical services(RITES)• Container corporation (concor)• Rail tel corparation (Rail tel)• Konkan railway corpo Ltd (KRCL)• Mumbai rail vikas corporation (MRVC)• Rail Vikash Nigam Ltd (RVNL)• Rail Land Dev Authority(RLDA)• Dedicated freight corridor co Ltd

Research• Research Design & Standardisation

Organisation (RDSO) in Lucknow –in house research organisation

• It is an integrated organisation for track & rolling stock

• responsible for developing and testing of new technology and design related to railways

TRAINING

• OFFICERS• Railway staff college,Vadadara- General training for all

Railway officers• IRICEN,Pune –Civil engg• IRIEEN,Nasik-electrical engg• IRIMEE-jamalpur-Mechenical engg• IRISET-Secundrabad-signal & telecommunication engg • Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management

(IRITM) at Lucknow-Traffic deptt• Cenntral training academy for Railwyays accounts-

Account deptt

Training (contd)

Supervisors and staff• Zonal training centre• Divisional training school• Others like drivers,engineering training

schools• 177 training institutes for training of

non gazetted staff• 25% of officers and 17% of staff are

trained annually

Public concern• Availability of Reservation

• PRS irrespective of presence of Railway - cover more than 90% of population including each district HQ etc,(720 no)

• tatkal booking, Internet booking• PNR enquiry.• It runs additional service in

festivals,summer & winter holiday• information for passengers on internet,

ivrs

Public Concern

• Safety & punctuality -generally good but adverse publicity is more .Annual deaths in Railways are much lesser than Road Accidents

• Cleanliness of stations ,waiting halls etc Cleanliness of trains , toilets & linen supplied in trains- serious

concern. Lot of attention is being paid but lot is to be done. depend on civic sense of rail users also

• Hygienic food –now IRCTC is setup to improve catering at stations & trains

• All information available in timetable & internet at www.indianrail.gov.in

Railways concern

• Not able to fix fare as per cost -• i) loss in suburban service • ii) loss due to increase in cost of diesel • Not able to close uneconomic branch line-

yearly loss 2500 cr• Political interference in investment decision• Not able to meet public demand for more

seats in few sector &run empty trains in others• Need Rs50000 cr to complete on going

projects

Commercial vs Social

• Railway has social obligation to run transport service for all the area of country irrespective of profit motive. It can not close uneconomic lines

• It can not increase fare due to adverse political impact even though fuel cost mounting

• It has to generate enough resources for efficient maintenance & replacements of assets on its own

• Any question is most welcome

• THANKS

Tree plantation

• Does Tree plantation along the Railway line , in colony & on surplus vacant land

• Ornamental tree in offices , stations residence compounds ,level xing• Now energy plantation is thrust area –

Jatropha curcus (biodiesel)• Railway plant about 20 lakhs tree every

year

Dedicated freight corridor

• Railways will construct two dedicated freight corridor from calcutta to Amritsar & Mumbai to Delhi via Ahmadabad-Jaipur

• It will cost about Rs1.0 lakh cr & will be funded by railways own resources

• 2 yr plg +5 year construction

Numbering of trains

• 4 digit numbering for express & 3 digit for passenger trains

• Tr no starting with 2 –superfast• First digit –zone 2nd digit –divn & last 2 digit

train identity• All Rajdhani except serving WR(29) & ER(23)

are NR trains & starts with number 24• All shatabdi trains starts with number 20 & last

two digit vary from 01 to 84

Coach numbering

• H -AC first• A - AC-2 tier• B -AC-3 tier• C – Chair car• S – SL class• -General