systems had been taken over by the government.

Organisational structure[edit]

Indian Railway zonal map.

Main article: Indian Railway organisational structure

Railway zones[edit]

Further information: Zones and divisions of Indian Railways

Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones,[15] which are further sub-divided
into divisions. The number of zones in Indian Railways increased from six
to eight in 1951, nine in 1952 and seventeen in 2003. [16][17] Each zonal
railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each having a
divisional headquarters. There are a total of sixty-eight divisions. [18][19]
Each zone is headed by a general manager, who reports directly to the
Railway Board. The zones are further divided into divisions, under the
control of divisional railway managers (DRM). The divisional officers, of
engineering, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecommunication,
accounts, personnel, operating, commercial, security and safety branches,
report to the respective Divisional Manager and are in charge of operation
and maintenance of assets. Further down the hierarchy tree are the station
masters, who control individual stations and train movements through the

track territory under their stations' administration.

S
r

Name

Ab
br.

Date
Establish
ed

Rou
te
km

Headquarte
rs

Divisions

Southern SR

14 April 1951 5098

Chennai

Chennai, Tiruchirappalli,
and Salem,[20] Palakkad,
Thiruvananthapuram

Central

5 November
1951

Mumbai

Mumbai CST, Bhusawal

Solapur and Nagpur

CR

3905

Western

WR

5 November
1951

6182

Mumbai

Mumbai Central, Ratlam

Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bha
Indore, Surendranagar a
Vadodara

Eastern

ER

14 April 1952 2414

Kolkata

Howrah, Sealdah, Asans

Malda Town

Northern NR

14 April 1952 6968

Delhi

Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur,

Moradabad and Udhamp

North
Eastern

14 April 1952 3667

Gorakhpur

Izzatnagar, Lucknow and

NER

South
Eastern

1955

2631

Kolkata

Adra, Chakradharpur, Kh
and Ranchi

Northeas
NFR
t Frontier

15 January
1958

3907

Guwahati

Alipurduar, Katihar, Ran

Lumding and Tinsukia

South
Central

SCR

2 October
1966

5951

Secunderabad

Vijayawada, Secunderab
Guntakal, Guntur, Hyder
Nanded

10

East
Central

ECR

1 October
2002

3628

Hajipur

Danapur, Dhanbad, Mug

Samastipur and Sonpur

11

North
Western

NWR

1 October
2002

5459

Jaipur

Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner a

12

East
Coast

ECoR 1 April 2003

2677

Bhubaneswar

Khurda Road, Sambalpu

Visakhapatnam

13

North
Central

NCR

3151

Allahabad

Allahabad, Agra and Jha

SER

1 April 2003

14

South
East
Central

SECR 1 April 2003

2447

Bilaspur

Bilaspur, Raipur and Na

15

South
Western

SWR

1 April 2003

3177

Hubli

Hubli, Bangalore and My

16

West
Central

WCR

1 April 2003

2965

Jabalpur

Jabalpur, Bhopal and Ko

A pantograph on an IR

Recruitment
training[edit]

and

train.

Main article:
Centralised
Training Institutes
of the Indian
Railways
Staff are classified into gazetted (Group 'A' and 'B') and non-gazetted
(Group 'C' and 'D') employees.[21] The recruitment of Group 'A' gazetted
employees is carried out by the Union Public Service Commission through
exams conducted by it.[22] The recruitment to Group 'C' and 'D' employees
on the Indian Railways is done through 20 Railway Recruitment Boards and
Railway Recruitment Cells which are controlled by the Railway Recruitment
Control Board (RRCB).[23] The training of all cadres is entrusted and shared
between six centralised training institutes.