Indian Railway organisational structure

The Indian Railways is broadly organized by functional groups of the Indian Railway Service. From 1869 to 2017, three kinds of state railway construction commenced. The Imperial State Railways were owned by the British Government of India through the governors of one of the presidencies of Bombay, Bengal or Madras. The Provincial State Railways were owned by the British provinces such as Northwest Awadh, Punjab, and so on; the Railways were owned by the native states (Jodhpur Railway owned by the Maharaja of Jodhpur and so on).

Over time, the New Guarantee System consisting of three new guaranteed companies was formed — Southern Maratha in 1882, the Indian Midland Railway in 1885, and the Bengal Nagpur Railway in 1887. The State started acquiring the old guaranteed companies when their contracts came up for renewal. The Indian Railways were nationalized in 1951 when the Acworth committee recommended the government should take control of independent railways.

The apex management organisation is the Railway Board, also called the Ministry of Railways. The board is headed by a Chairman who directly reports to the Railway Minister in charge. The board has five other members.

The General Managers of the zonal railways and the production units both report to the board.

The various Group A cadres are as below:

Non Technical Services recruitment through Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC

Technical Services recruitment through Indian Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC

Medical Services recruitment through Combined medical Examination conducted by UPSC

India's vast rail system is the third largest in the world and is managed at a regional level. Indian Railways has divided itself into sixteen zonal railways. Each zone, headed by a General Manager, is semi-autonomous and this creates a matrix organisation where the functional branches are under dual control viz.

The current 17 zones of the Indian Railways are

The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) heads the organisation at the division level. There are currently 71 divisions on the system nationwide. The divisions are primarily involved with train running but may also have loco sheds (repair shops for locomotives), coaching depots (repair home bases for passenger trains), and wagon depots (repair and maintenance points for freight stock).

Each division has all the functional organisations (both line and staff). The heads of these functional groups report to the DRM for administrative purposes but rely on guidance from the railway board and the zonal headquarters for policy guidelines.

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