Indian Railways organisational structure: Difference between revisions

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The Indian Railways is organised broadly by functional groups of Indian Railway Service. This is traditionally how the co-operation is organised. The Indian Railways perhaps has been less adventurous in changing the structure; it has largely kept up what it got as a legacy since the British era.

Railway Board

The apex management organisation is the Railway Board, also called the Ministry of Railways. The board is headed by a Chairman who reports to the Minister of Railways. The board has five other members in addition to the chairman.

The General Managers of the zonal railways and the production units report to the board.

Functional branches

The various Group A cadres are as below:

Non Technical Services recruitment through Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC

IRTS - Indian Railway Traffic Service
IRPS - Indian Railway Personnel Service
IRAS - Indian Railway Accounts Service
RPF - Railway Protection Force

Technical Services recruitment through Indian Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC

IRSE - Indian Railway Service of (Civil) Engineers
IRSEE - Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers
IRSME - Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers
IRSS - Indian Railway Stores Service
IRSSE - Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers

Medical Services recruitment through Combined medical Examination conducted by UPSC

IRMS - Indian Railway Medical Service

India's vast rail system, the third largest in the world, is managed by regional levels. Indian Railways has divided itself into seventeen zonal railways. Each zone, headed by a General Manager, is semi-autonomous and this creates a matrix organisation where the functional branches are under dual control viz.

Operational Control at Zonal level
Functional Policy & Guidance from the Railway Board

Zonal management

The current 18 zones of the Indian Railways are

Name	Abbr.	Headquarters
Central Railway	CR	Mumbai
Eastern Railway	ER	Kolkata
East Central Railway	ECR	Hajipur
East Coast Railway	ECoR	Bhubaneswar
Konkan Railway	KR	Panvel
Northern Railway	NR	Delhi
North Central Railway	NCR	Allahabad
North Western Railway	NWR	Jaipur
North Eastern Railway	NER	Gorakhpur
Northeast Frontier Railway	NFR	Maligaon(Guwahati)
Southern Railway	SR	Chennai
South Central Railway	SCR	Secunderabad
South Eastern Railway	SER	Kolkata
South East Central Railway	SECR	Bilaspur, CG
South Western Railway	SWR	Hubli
Western Railway	WR	Mumbai
West Central Railway	WCR	Jabalpur
Kolkata Metro	KMR	Kolkata

Divisional organisation

The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) heads the organisation at the division level. There are currently 71 divisions on the system nationwide. The divisions are primarily involved with train running but may have loco sheds (repair shops for locomotives), coaching depots (repair home bases for passenger trains) and wagon depots (repair and maintenance points for freight stock).

Each division has all the functional (both line and staff) organisations. The heads of these functional groups report to the DRM for administrative purposes but rely on guidance from the railway board and the zonal headquarters for policy guidelines.

External links

Official websites

@@ Line 134: / Line 134: @@
 ** [http://www.nr.indianrailways.gov.in/ Northern Railway ]
 ** [http://www.ncr.indianrailways.gov.in/ North Central Railway ]
-** [http://www.nwr.indianrailways.gov.in/ North Western Railway ]
+** [http://web.archive.org/web/20140427190605/http://www.nwr.indianrailways.gov.in:80/ North Western Railway ]
 ** [http://www.ner.indianrailways.gov.in/ North Eastern Railway ]
 ** [http://www.nfr.indianrailways.gov.in/ Northeast Frontier Railway ]
-** [http://www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in/ Southern Railway ]
+** [http://www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in/ Southern Railway ]{{dead link|date=July 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
-** [http://www.scr.indianrailways.gov.in/ South Central Railway ]
+** [http://web.archive.org/web/20130128160800/http://www.scr.indianrailways.gov.in:80/ South Central Railway ]
 ** [http://www.ser.indianrailways.gov.in/ South Eastern Railway]
-** [http://www.secr.indianrailways.gov.in/ South East Central Railway ]
+** [http://web.archive.org/web/20121204064436/http://www.secr.indianrailways.gov.in:80/ South East Central Railway ]
 ** [http://www.swr.indianrailways.gov.in/ South Western Railway ]
 ** [http://www.wr.indianrailways.gov.in/ Western Railway ]