. for general information on railways in india see rail transport in india . indian railways indian railways logo native name bh rat ya rail type state owned industry railways founded 16 april 1853 163 years ago 1853 04 16 1 headquarters new delhi india area served india limited service to nepal bangladesh pakistan key people suresh prabhakar prabhu minister of railways 2014 services passenger railways freight services parcel carrier catering and tourism services parking lot operations other related services revenue 1.709 trillion us 25 billion 2 2015 16 profit 105.02 billion us 1.6 billion 2015 16 owner government of india number of employees 1.335 million 3 2014 parent ministry of railways through railway board divisions 16 railway zones subsidiaries irctc railtel website www.indianrailways.gov.in indian railways reporting mark ir locale india dates of operation 16 april 1853 1853 04 16 present track gauge 1 676 mm 5 ft 6 in 1 000 mm 3 ft 3 3 8 in 762 mm 2 ft 6 in 610 mm 2 ft length 68 048 kilometres 42 283 mi route 4 115 000 kilometres 71 000 mi track indian railways reporting mark ir is an indian state owned enterprise owned and operated by the government of india through the ministry of railways . it is one of the world s largest railway networks comprising 115 000 km 71 000 mi of track over a route of 67 312 km 41 826 mi and 7 112 stations . 3 in 2015 16 ir carried 8.101 billion passengers annually or more than 22 million passengers a day and 1.107 billion tons of freight in the year . in 2014 2015 indian railways had revenues of 1.709 trillion us 25 billion which consists of 1.118 trillion us 17 billion from freight and 451.26 billion us 6.7 billion from passengers tickets . 2 railways were first introduced to india in the year 1853 from mumbai to thane . in 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit the indian railways becoming one of the largest networks in the world . ir operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi gauge network of broad metre and narrow gauges . it also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at several places in india with assigned codes identifying their gauge kind of power and type of operation . its operations cover twenty nine states and seven union territories and also provide limited international services to nepal bangladesh and pakistan . indian railways is the world s seventh largest commercial or utility employer by number of employees with over 1.376 million employees as of last published figures in 2013 . ir s rolling stock comprises over 245 267 freight wagons 66 392 passenger coaches and 10 499 locomotives 43 steam 5 633 diesel and 4 823 electric locomotives . 3 the trains have a 5 digit numbering system and runs 12 617 passenger trains and 7 421 freight trains daily . 5 as of 31 march 2016 27 999 km 17 398 mi 41.59 % of the total 67 312 km 41 826 mi route length was electrified . 4 since 1960 almost all electrified sections on ir use 25 000 volt ac traction through overhead catenary of delivery . contents 1 history 2 organisational structure 3 railway zones 3.1 recruitment and training 4 rolling stock 4.1 locomotives 4.2 goods wagons 4.3 passenger coaches 4.4 freight 5 track and gauge 5.1 research and development 6 current and future developments 6.1 bio toilets on railways 6.2 locomotive factories 7 links to adjacent countries 8 types of passenger services 9 accommodation classes 10 unesco world heritage sites 11 notable trains 11.1 tourist trains 11.2 other trains 12 problems and issues 13 see also 14 references 15 further reading 16 external links history edit main article history of rail transport in india india s first train ran between bombay and thane robert maitland brereton the b.b. & c.i. railway head offices 1905 extent of the railway network in 1909 . indian railways headquarters delhi map of the completed and planned railway lines in india in 1871 thirteen years after the end of company rule . the history of rail transport in india began in the mid nineteenth century . the core of the pressure for building railways in india came from london . in 1848 there was not a single kilometer of railway line in india . the country s first railway built by the great indian peninsula railway gipr opened in 1853 between bombay and thane . 6 the east indian railway company was established 1 june 1845 in london by a deed of settlement with a capital of 4 000 000 largely raised in london . 7 the great southern india railway co. was founded in britain in 1853 and registered in 1859 . construction of track in madras presidency began in 1859 and the 80 mile link from trichinopoly to negapatam was opened in 1861 . the carnatic railway founded in 1864 opened a madras arakkonam kancheepuram line in 1865 . the great southern india railway company was subsequently merged with the carnatic railway company in 1874 to form the south indian railway company . 8 9 a british engineer robert maitland brereton was responsible for the expansion of the railways from 1857 onwards . the allahabad jabalpur branch line of the east indian railway had been opened in june 1867 . brereton was responsible for linking this with the gipr resulting in a combined network of 6 400 km 4 000 mi . hence it became possible to travel directly from bombay to calcutta . this route was officially opened on 7 march 1870 and it was part of the inspiration for french writer jules verne s book around the world in eighty days . at the opening ceremony the viceroy lord mayo concluded that it was thought desirable that if possible at the earliest possible moment the whole country should be covered with a network of lines in a uniform system . 10 by 1875 about 95 million were invested by british companies in india . 11 by 1880 the network had a route mileage of about 14 500 km 9 000 mi mostly radiating inward from the three major port cities of bombay madras and calcutta . by 1895 india had started building its own locomotives and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the uganda railways . in 1900 the gipr became a government owned company . the network spread to the modern day states of assam rajputhana and madras presidency and soon various autonomous kingdoms began to have their own rail systems . in 1905 an early railway board was constituted but the powers were formally vested under lord curzon . 12 it served under the department of commerce and industry and had a government railway official serving as chairman and a railway manager from england and an agent of one of the company railways as the other two members . for the first time in its history the railways began to make a profit . in 1907 almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government . the following year the first electric locomotive made its appearance . with the arrival of world war i the railways were used to meet the needs of the british outside india . with the end of the war the railways were in a state of disrepair and collapse . large scale corruption by british officials involved in the running of these railways companies was rampant . profits were never reinvested in the development of british colonial india . 13 interior of gatiman express . in 1920 with the network having expanded to 61 220 km 38 040 mi 14 a need for central management was mooted by sir william acworth . based on the east india railway committee chaired by acworth the government took over the management of the railways and detached the finances of the railways from other governmental revenues . the period between 1920 and 1929 was a period of economic boom ; there were 41 000 mi 66 000 km of railway lines serving the country ; the railways represented a capital value of some 687 million sterling ; and they carried over 620 million passengers and approximately 90 million tons of goods each year . 15 following the great depression the railways suffered economically for the next eight years . the second world war severely crippled the railways . starting in 1939 about 40 % of the rolling stock including locomotives and coaches was taken to the middle east . the railways workshops were converted to ammunitions workshops and many railway tracks were dismantled to help the allies in the war . by 1946 all rail systems had been taken over by the government . organisational structure edit main article indian railway organisational structure railway zones edit further information zones and divisions of indian railways indian railway zonal map . indian railways is divided into 17 zones 16 which are further sub divided into divisions . the number of zones in indian railways increased from six to eight in 1951 nine in 1966 and sixteen in 2003 . 17 18 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 . 19 20 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 railway 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 . the chart below briefly depicted the indian railway s zones route km electrified route number of stations and divisions . sr name abbr . date established route km electrified route km number of stations headquarters divisions image 1 southern railway sr 14 april 1951 6844 890 chennai chennai tiruchirappalli madurai and salem 21 palakkad thiruvananthapuram 2 central railway cr 5 november 1951 3905 612 mumbai mumbai cst bhusawal pune solapur and nagpur 3 western railway wr 5 november 1951 6440 1046 mumbai mumbai central ratlam ahmedabad rajkot bhavnagar and vadodara 4 eastern railway er 14 april 1952 2680 1501 576 kolkata howrah sealdah asansol and malda town 5 northern railway nr 14 april 1952 7221 1142 delhi delhi ambala firozpur lucknow and moradabad 6 north eastern railway ner 14 april 1952 3667 537 gorakhpur izzatnagar lucknow and varanasi 7 south eastern railway ser 1955 2711 2313 353 kolkata adra chakradharpur kharagpur and ranchi 8 northeast frontier railway nfr 15 january 1958 3907 690 maligaon alipurduar katihar rangia lumding and tinsukia 9 south central railway scr 2 october 1966 5951 883 secunderabad hyderabad secunderabad vijayawada guntakal guntur and nanded 10 east central railway ecr 1 october 2002 3628 800 hajipur danapur dhanbad mughalsarai samastipur and sonepur 11 north western railway nwr 1 october 2002 5554 663 jaipur jaipur ajmer bikaner and jodhpur 12 east coast railway ecor 1 april 2003 2677 342 bhubaneswar khurda road sambalpur and visakhapatnam 13 north central railway ncr 1 april 2003 3363 1757 435 allahabad allahabad agra and jhansi 14 south east central railway secr 1 april 2003 2447 358 bilaspur bilaspur raipur and nagpur 15 south western railway swr 1 april 2003 3322 256 456 hubballi hubballi bengaluru mysuru and kalburgi 22 16 west central railway wcr 1 april 2003 2995 1590 372 jabalpur jabalpur bhopal and kota 17 konkan railway kr 26 january 1998 736 70 a pantograph on an ir train . recruitment and training edit main article centralised training institutes of the indian railways staff are classified