List of Major Railway Zones in India: 2020

Indian Railways are run and owned by the Indian Government involving the Ministry of Railways. Railways were first initiated in India in 1853 from Bombay to Thane. In 1951 they federated the system as one unit. Hence the Indian Railways became one of the most extensive matrices in the world, having 17 additionally subjected zones. In 1951, the number of zones in Indian Railways increased from six to eight and to nine in 1966 and sixteen in 2003.

Each railway zone comprises a certain number of divisions, and each division has divisional headquarter. There are a total of sixty-eight divisions—a general manager rules each division, reporting to the Railway Board. Konkan Railways is the latest extension to the railway zones of India. The Railway Board and Railway Ministry control these zones. Piyush Goyal is the current Railway Minister of India.

List of the Railway Zones in India

S.I. No.	Railway Zone	Zone Headquarters	Railway Divisions
1	Northern Railway	Delhi	Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow NR, Moradabad
2	Northeast Frontier Railway	Guwahati	Alipurduar, Katihar, Rangiya, Lumding, Tinsukia
3	Eastern Railway	Kolkata	Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda
4	South Eastern Railway	Kolkata	Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi
5	South Central Railway	Secunderabad	Secunderabad, Hyderabad Vijayawada, GuntakalGuntur, Nanded
6	Southern Railway	Chennai	Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram
7	Central Railway	Mumbai	Mumbai, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur
8	Western Railway	Mumbai	Mumbai WR, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara
9	South Western Railway	Hubballi	Hubballi, Bengaluru, Mysuru
10	North Western Railway	Jaipur	Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur
11	West Central Railway	Jabalpur	Jabalpur, Bhopal  Kota
12	North Central Railway	Allahabad	Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi
13	South East Central Railway	Bilaspur	Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur SEC
14	East Coast Railway	Bhubaneswar	Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Waltair
15	East Central Railway	HajipurDanapur	Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur
16	Konkan Railway	Navi Mumbai
17	Kolkata Metro Railway	Kolkata	Kolkata

Also Read List of National Highways Of India

Important facts about the Railway Zones of India

1. Northern Railways is one of the nine remote zones of Indian Railways and it is also the substantial grid having a route of 6807 kilometres.
2. The oldest operating wagon of India is the “Fairy Queen”, invented in 1855. It is also the oldest working steam motor in the world.
3. The New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India. It runs at an average speed of 91 km/h and extends to a speed of 150 km/h on the 195 kilometres Delhi-Agra stretch.
4. The “Nilgiri Express” is the slowest train with an average speed of 10 km/h.
5. The “Vivek Express” i.e; from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari travelling 4,273 km, is the longest sprint in case of total time and distance.
6. Train services between Nagpur and Ajni forms the shortest path located just 3 kilometre apart.
7. The “Trivandrum-Nizamuddin Rajdhani” Express is at the top most rank as it advances at a stretch of 528km between Vadodara and Kota which is a continuous (non-stop) railway.
8. “The Howrah-Amritsar Express” has the highest number of cessations at 115.
9. Srirampur and Belapur are two distinct stations in Maharashtra, Ahmednagar district, which are at the same location on the railway path but lies on the opposite edges of the route.
10. The longest railway platform in the world is in Gorakhpur, which measures 1.35 kilometre.

Summary

Today, India has a total of about 17 railway zones. The very first railway train in India was invented in 1853 which ran from Bombay to Thane. All the railway zones of India is headed by the Railway Minister of India with a general manager under him. The New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest moving train today in India.

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