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The Government of India owns the Ministry of Railways and operates Indian Railways. From Bombay to Thane, the first passenger train of Indian railways began its operation in 1853. The system was nationalised in 1951, and the Indian Railways became one of the world’s largest networks.
The Indian Railway operates by dividing the complete area of the country into zones and divisions for the ease of operation in the entire country simultaneously. The term ‘Division’ is given to the sub-category of the zones, whereas the ‘zones’ indicate a large area under which an entire state or parts of multiple states can be indulged. In the present scenario, the Indian Railways has 70 divisions and 19 zones, including Kolkata Metro Railway. The divisions are under the supervision of a DRM or Divisional Railway Manager, and the DRM has to report to the General Manager of the Zone.
The names of the Indian Railway zones with headquarters, zone code, and divisions under that zone are listed below.
Complete List of Railway Zones in India
Railway zone | Code | Zone headquarters | Route length (km) | Number of stations | Railway divisions |
Central Railway | CR | Mumbai CSMT | 4,102 | 612 | Mumbai, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur CR |
East Central Railway | ECR | Hajipur | 3,628 | 800 | Danapur, Dhanbad, Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Samastipur, Sonpur |
East Coast Railway | ECoR | Bhubaneswar | 2,204 | 342 | Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Rayagada |
Eastern Railway | ER | Fairlie Place, Kolkata | 2,414 | 576 | Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda |
Konkan Railway | KR | Navi Mumbai | 741 | 67 | Karwar, Ratnagiri |
Metro Railway, Kolkata | MTP | Kolkata | 39 | 33 | |
North Central Railway | NCR | Prayagraj | 3,151 | 435 | Prayagraj, Agra, Jhansi |
North Eastern Railway | NER | Gorakhpur | 3,667 | 537 | Izzatnagar, Lucknow NER, Varanasi |
North Western Railway | NWR | Jaipur | 5,459 | 663 | Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur |
Northeast Frontier Railway | NFR | Maligaon, Guwahati | 3,948 | 753 | Alipurduar, Katihar, Rangiya, Lumding, Tinsukia |
Northern Railway | NR | Delhi | 6,968 | 1142 | Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow NR, Moradabad |
South Central Railway | SCR | Secunderabad Junction | 3,127 | 883 | Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Nanded |
South Coast Railway | SCoR | Visakhapatnam | 3,496 | Waltair, Vijayawada, Guntur, Guntakal | |
South East Central Railway | SECR | Bilaspur | 2,447 | 358 | Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur SEC |
South Eastern Railway | SER | Garden Reach, Kolkata | 2,631 | 353 | Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi |
South Western Railway | SWR | Hubballi | 3,566 | 456 | Hubballi, Bengaluru, Mysuru |
Southern Railway | SR | Chennai Central | 5,079 | 890 | Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram |
West Central Railway | WCR | Jabalpur | 2,965 | 372 | Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota |
Western Railway | WR | Mumbai (Churchgate) | 6,182 | 1046 | Mumbai WR, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara |
In the entire Indian Railway system, Kolkata is the city that has the highest number of zonal headquarters, comprising the eastern zone, southeastern zone, and Kolkata Metro Railway.
Central Railway Zone
The central railway zone was one of the largest railway zones. The Central Railway zone comprises some areas of the southern part of Uttar Pradesh and a significant portion of Madhya Pradesh. The zone was established on 5th November 1951 by merging the Scindia State Railway, Nizam state railway, Dholpur railways, Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and Wardha Coal state railway.
Although it was the largest railway zone, it was renamed, and a few of its divisions were given to the others in April 2003.
Currently, the Central Railway zone has five different divisions under its authority, with its headquarters at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai. At present, the state of Maharashtra, the North-Eastern Part of Karnataka, and the southern part of Madhya Pradesh fall under its authority.
Northern Railway
The Northern Railway was established back in 1859 and was later added to the official list of the railway zones in India on 14th April 1952. Currently, it is one of India’s oldest and largest railway zones, which provides services in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, and a few parts of Uttar Pradesh. It also operates in the union territories of the Indian government, mainly Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chandigarh. The Northern Railway zone is headquartered in New Delhi at Baroda House. Moreover, it has a railway network of 6,807 kilometres.
Konkan Railway
The Konkan railway began its operation on 20th March 1993. The train was operated between Mangalore and Udupi. Due to a few accidents in its initial working days, the Konkan railway highly promoted advanced technologies in its operations, such as sky bus, roll-on/roll-off service (commonly known as the RORO service) and anti-collision devices.
The headquarters of the Konkan Railway is at CBD Belapur, which is located in Navi Mumbai. One of the interesting facts about the Konkan railway is that with just one track of 756.24 km, it covers 69 railway stations.
18th Railway zone: South Coast Railway zone
The South Coast Railway zone is the 18th railway zone of the Indian railway which was introduced in the year 2019 by Piyush Goyal, the railway minister during the period. The zone has Guntur, Guntakal, Vijayawada, and Waltair divisions under it and is headquartered in Visakhapatnam.
Kolkata Metro
The Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system. The railway system uses electricity for its operations, and the system is used for the movement of locals in the metropolitan city. Although the initial planning of the Kolkata Metro was done in the 1920s, the construction began in the 1970s. Finally, it was recognised as the 17th zone of the Indian Railway on 29th December 2010.
By February 2021, the zone had two tracks from Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash and from Salt Lake Sector V to Phoolbagan, with track lengths of 31.36 km and 6.9 km, respectively.
Conclusion
The Indian Railway includes 70 divisions and 19 zones, including the Kolkata metro railways. Each division is led by a DRM (Divisional Railway Manager), answerable to the Zone’s General Manager. The central railway zone was set up on 5th November 1951. Moreover, the 18th railway zone listed in the list of the railway zones in India is the South Coast Railway Zone.
