What It Does: Indian Railways is a vertically integrated organization that produces the majority of its locomotives & rolling stock at in-house production units, with a few recent exceptions.
Mission: Indian Railways shall provide safe, efficient, affordable, customer- focussed and environmentally sustainable integrated transportation solutions.
Vision: It shall be a modern vehicle of inclusive growth, connecting regions, communities, ports and centres of industry, commerce, tourism and pilgrimage across the country.
Size & Presence: Indian Railways employs close to 1.54 million people across 16 zones in India.
The first railway in the Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane. The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalyan and with the Thal and Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to Mr George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay Government, during a visit to Bhandup in 1843.
The formal inauguration ceremony was performed on 16th April 1853, when 14 railway carriages carrying about 400 guests left Bori Bunder at 3.30 pm "amidst the loud applause of a vast multitude and to the salute of 21 guns." The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15th August 1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railway was opened to public traffic, inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the subcontinent.
In the south, the first line was opened on Ist July 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between Vyasarpadi Jeeva Nilayam (Veyasarpandy) and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the North, a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March 1859. The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19th October 1875.
These were the small’s beginnings which is a due course developed into a network of railway lines all over the country. By 1880 the Indian Railway system had a route mileage of about 9000 miles. INDIAN RAILWAYS, the premier transport organization of the country is the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second-largest under one management.
Indian Railways is in constant touch with Railways across the world to bring in state-of-art facilities in its system. Towards this, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the Eighth Session of the Indo-Austria Joint Economic Commission held in Vienna. This seeks to promote and deepen long-term infrastructure-specific cooperation between Indian and Austrian Railways to their mutual benefit. A three-day International Conference of the Union of Railways was organised by Indian Railways in New Delhi in which hundreds of delegates from various industries and Railways around the world participated.
The recruitment process shall involve 1st Stage Computer Based Test (CBT), 2nd Stage Computer Based Test (CBT), Typing Skill Test/Computer Based Aptitude Test (as applicable) and Document Verification/Medical Examination. Selection is made strictly as per merit, on the basis of the above-mentioned recruitment stages.
Indian Railways has offered projects related to environmental sustainability, sanitation and cleanliness, rainwater harvesting, water recycling plants and solar panels among others under corporate social responsibility (CSR). To encourage the participation of private companies and PSUs in identified activities to be done under CSR in Railways, the policy framework was put in place.
Indian Railways has been executing required works with gross budgetary support from the General Exchequer, internal resources, IRFC borrowing, Institutional financing and other modes of financing as per requirement and feasibility.