The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. The Indian Railways is the rail network operated and administered by the Railway Board constituted by the ministry. The ministry along with the Railway Board is housed inside Rail Bhawan in New Delhi. It is headed by the Minister of Railways. With more than 1.2 million employees, it is one of the world's largest employers.
History The first railway track was operational in Madras in 1837 and the first passenger train ran in Bombay in 1853. But the earlier railways were operated by private companies with the earliest being the Madras Railway established in 1845 and the Great Indian Peninsular Railway incorporated in 1849. In October 1901, the Secretary of State for India in Council appointed Thomas Robertson as a special commissioner for Indian Railways to prepare a report on the administration of Indian Railways. In his report in 1903, Thomas recommended setting up of a three-member Railway Board headed by a chief commissioner. In March 1905, the railway branch of the Public Works Department was transferred to the newly established railway board under the department of commerce and industry by the Indian Railway Board Act. In 1908, the set up was re-organized on the recommendations of the Railway Finance Committee (1908) by constituting the railway board headed by a president as a separate department. Pursuant to the Acworth committee's recommendations in 1921, the railway board was expanded to four members with the addition of a financial commissioner in 1924 apart from the chief commissioner, one commissioners responsible for ways and works, projects and stores and the other responsible for general administration, staff and traffic.
In 1929, an additional member was added to the board and was assigned the responsibility for staff, so that the member in charge of traffic could focus solely on transport and commercial matters. In 1944, all the railway companies were taken over by the Government. The ministry of railways was part of the Ministry of Transport after the independence in 1947 and John Mathai served as its first minister from 1947 till 1948. On 22 September 1948, N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar was appointed as the minister of the newly renamed Ministry of Railways and Transport. On 17 April 1957, Jagjivan Ram became the first to head the standalone Minister of Railways.
In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for re-organising Indian Railways into six regional zones and re-constituting the railway board to four members with the senior-most functional member appointed the chairman of the board with no absolute over riding power. In October 1954, the chairman of the board was made responsible for decisions on technical and policy matters, with the status of a principal secretary to the Government of India with an additional member added.
The board was expanded with an additional member responsible for electrical engineering in 1972 and a further member responsible for health in 1976.
The Ministry of Railways was merged with the Ministry of Shipping and Transport and the Department of Civil Aviation on 25 September 1985 to form the Ministry of Transport and Bansi Lal, who served as the Railways Minister prior to the merger became the first holder of the new office. However, on 22 October 1986, the Ministry of Railways was again separated into an independent ministry and has been the same since then.
In 2004, the board is expanded by the introduction of two new members responsible for signalling & telecom and for stores respectively. In December 2019, the Union Cabinet decided to reduce the size of the board from eight to five.
Railway Budget
The first railway budget was presented in 1924. Since then, Railway budget was presented as a standalone budget every year before the union budget by the Railway Minister till 2016. The last Railway Budget was presented on 25 February 2016 and on 21 September 2016, Government of India approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017. The railway budget was estimated to be for the financial year 2023–24.
Organisation + Administrative officialsTitleNameMinister of RailwaysAshwini Vaishnaw Minister of State, RailwaysV. Somanna, Ravneet Singh BittuChairman and CEO of Railway BoardSatish Kumar The ministry has a union minister and one or more ministers of state. The railway board reports to the union ministry with the directorates of traction, engineering, traffic, rolling stock, signalling, materials, personnel, Railway Protection Force (RPF), finance, health and safety reporting to the board. Indian Railways is a statutory body that reports to parliament and is under the ownership of ministry of railways. Indian Railways is further divided into 18 administrative zones (17 operational), headed by general managers who report to the board along with the heads of other institutions and undertakings owned by the Indian Railways. The railway board consists of a chairman, four members responsible for operations & business development, traction & rolling stock, infrastructure and finance respectively. Also part of the board are four director generals responsible for human resources, health, RPF and safety respectively.
Statutory Bodies/Public Sector Undertakings Rail India Technical and Economic Service Rail Land Development Authority IRCON International IRCON Renewable Power Limited Rail Vikas Nigam Limited Indian Railways Finance Corporation SIDCUL CONCOR Infra Company Ltd., a JV of SIDCUL and CONCOR Krishnapatnam Railway Company Limited, a JV of RVNL, Sagarmala Development Company, NMDC, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, etc. Centre for Railway Information Systems Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited Braithwaite and Company Limited
Society Indian Railway Welfare Organisation
Railway Budget
The first railway budget was presented in 1924. Since then, Railway budget was presented as a standalone budget every year before the union budget till 2016. The last Railway Budget was presented on 25 February 2016 and on 21 September 2016, Government of India approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017. The railway budget is estimated to be for the financial year 2023–24.
Railway ministers
The Minister of Railways (Hindi: ) is the head of the ministry and a member of the union council of ministers of India. The position of the Minister of Railways is usually held by a minister of cabinet rank and is often assisted by one or two junior Ministers of State.
John Mathai was the first Minister of Railways. Lal Bahadur Shastri who served as the Minister of Railways and Transport from 1952 until 1956 became the second Prime Minister of India in 1964. Four prime ministers, namely Rajiv Gandhi, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (twice) and Manmohan Singh (twice) have briefly held the portfolio of the Minister of Railways during their premiership. Mohsina Kidwai was the first female to hold the charge of the ministry (as Minister of Surface Transport) while Mamata Banerjee is the first female to have served as the Minister of Railways. Madhavrao Scindia and Ram Naik are the only people to have served as Ministers of State for Railways with an Independent charge. Lalit Narayan Mishra is the only cabinet minister to die in office after being assassinated in a bomb blast in 1975, while Suresh Angadi is the only minister of state to die in office.
The current Minister of Railways is Ashwini Vaishnaw of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been in office since 7 July 2021 while V. Somanna is the minister of state for railways.
Cabinet Ministers Key: Assassinated or died in office Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)
+ Indian Railway Ministers PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From ToPeriodMinister of TransportJohn Mathai19471948Indian National Congress Nehru IJawaharlal NehruMinister of Transport and RailwaysN. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar19481952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal NehruLal Bahadur Shastri19521956 Nehru IIJagjivan Ram19561957Minister of RailwaysJagjivan Ram19571962 Indian National Congress Nehru III Jawaharlal Nehru Swaran Singh19621963 Nehru IV H. C. Dasappa19631964 19641964 Nanda IGulzarilal Nanda(acting) S. K. Patil19641966 ShastriLal Bahadur Shastri19661966 Nanda IIGulzarilal Nanda(acting)19661967 Indira I Indira GandhiC. M. Poonacha19671969 Indira IIRam Subhag Singh19691969Panampilly Govinda Menon19691970 Indian National Congress (R)Gulzarilal Nanda19701971 Kengal Hanumanthaiah19711972 Indira IIIT. A. Pai19721973Lalit Narayan Mishra19731975Kamalapati Tripathi19751977 Madhu Dandavate19771979Janata Party DesaiMorarji DesaiT. A. Pai19791980Janata Party (Secular) Charan SinghCharan Singh Kamalapati Tripathi19801980 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira GandhiKedar Pandey19801982Prakash Chandra Sethi19821982 A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury1982198419841984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Bansi Lal19841985 Rajiv IIMinister of Transport Bansi Lal19851986 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi(Prime Minister)19861986Mohsina Kidwai19861986Minister of RailwaysMadhavrao Scindia(MoS, I/C)19861989Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv IIRajiv GandhiGeorge Fernandes19891990Janata Dal V. P. SinghV. P. SinghJaneshwar Mishra19901991Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra ShekharChandra ShekharC. K. Jaffer Sharief19911995 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha RaoP. V. Narasimha Rao(Prime Minister)19951996Atal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister)19961996Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee ISelf Ram Vilas Paswan19961997 Janata Dal Deve GowdaH. D. Deve Gowda19971998 GujralInder Kumar GujralNitish Kumar19981999Samata Party Vajpayee II Atal Bihari VajpayeeRam Naik(MoS, I/C)19991999Bharatiya Janata PartyMamata Banerjee19992001Trinamool Congress Vajpayee IIIAtal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister)20012001Bharatiya Janata PartyNitish Kumar20012004Janata Dal (United)Lalu Prasad Yadav20042009Rashtriya Janata Dal Manmohan I Manmohan SinghMamata Banerjee20092011Trinamool Congress Manmohan IIManmohan Singh(Prime Minister)20112011Indian National CongressDinesh Trivedi20112012 Trinamool CongressMukul Roy20122012C. P. Joshi20122012 Indian National CongressPawan Kumar Bansal20122013C. P. Joshi20132013Manmohan Singh(Prime Minister)20132013Mallikarjun Kharge20132014D. V. Sadananda Gowda20142014 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra ModiSuresh Prabhu20142017 Piyush Goyal20172019 20192021 Modi IIAshwini Vaishnaw 7 July2021 9 June2024 10 June2024IncumbentModi III
Ministers of State Key: Assassinated or died in office