Indian RailwaysProfile

Indian Railways

Indian Railways is the life-line of nation providing transportation facility over the length and breadth of country. It’s vision is to provide efficient, affordable, customer-focused, environmentally sustainable integrated transportation solutions and to be the vehicle of inclusive growth, connecting regions, communities, ports and centers of industry, commerce, tourism and pilgrimage across the country.

Civil Engineering infrastructure is the largest static infrastructure of Indian Railways comprising of track, bridges, land, etc. Management of this huge infrastructure has to be done in accordance with the organization’s vision. Civil engineering department of Indian Railways manages and maintains all these infrastructures. Further, it has key role in the area of infrastructure development, technological leap in various fields, high speed travel and development of world class stations.


Track and Bridges

As on 31.03.2009, the route length of Indian Railways covered 64,015 kms. With running track length of 86,937 kms. The total trackage including yards, sidings etc. stood at 113,115 kms. The table below shows the changing size of IR's rail network over the years.

Year Route kms. Running track kms. Total track kms #
Electrified Total Electrified Total Electrified Total
1950-51 388 53,596 937 59,315 1,253 77,609
1960-61 748 56,247 1,752 63,602 2,259 83,706
1970-71 3,706 59,790 7,447 71,669 9,586 98,546
1980-81 5,345 61,240 10,474 75,860 13,448 104,480
1990-91 9,968 62,367 18,954 78,607 25,305 108,858
2000-01 14,856 63,028 27,937 81,865 36,950 108,706
2005-06 17,907 63,332 33,540 84,370 44,815 109,808
2006-07 17,786 63,327 33,623 85,389 44,804 109,996
2007-08 18,274 63,273 34,700 85,158 47,296 111,599
2008-09 18,559 64,015 35,471 86,937 47,862 113,115
# Includes track in yards, sidings, crossings at stations, etc.



State-wise Route kms:

Followings table shows route kms. Of railway lines across various States/Union Territories at the end of 2008-09.

State/Union Territory Route kms. State/Union Territory Route kms
Andhra Pradesh 5,185 Mizoram 2
Arunachal Pradesh 1 Nagaland 13
Assam 2,284 Orissa 2,385
Bihar 3,515 Punjab 2,133
Chhatisgarh 1,186 Rajasthan 5,854
Delhi 183 Tamil Nadu 4,107
Goa 69 Tripura 151
Gujarat 5,328 Uttarakhand 345
Haryana 1,553 Uttar Pradesh 8,703
Himachal Pradesh 285 West Bengal 3,890
Jammu & Kashmir 239
Jharkhand 1,968
Karnataka 3,007
Kerala 1,050 Union Territory
Madhya Pradesh 4,949 Chandigarh 16
Maharashtra 5,602 Pondicherry 11
Manipur 1
Total 64,015
# Note: The remaining States/Union Territories have no railway line.



Gauge-wise Details:

Route length as on 31.03.2009 on each gauge, indicating double/multiple line, single line and electrified route, is given below:

Gauge Single line Double/multiple line Grand Total
Electrified Non electrified Total Electrified Non electrified Total
Broad (1676 mm) 4,707 29,929 34,636 13,852 4,320 18,172 52,808
Metre (1000 mm) - 8,473 8,473 - - - 8,473
Narrow (762 mm/610 mm) - 2,734 2,734 - - - 2,734
Total 4,707 41,136 45,843 13,852 4,320 18,172 64,015

Almost all double/multiple track sections and electrified routes are broad gauge. Metre and Narrow Gauges are mostly single line and non-electrified. Between 1950-51 and 2008-09, traffic density (million GT Kms. Per running track km.) increased from 5.24 to 28.42 on BG.





Bridges:

IR has 1,30,776 bridges, out of which 670 are important, 10,724 are major and 1,19,382 are minor bridges. In 2008-09, 1,388 bridges including 36 distressed bridges were rehabilitated/rebuilt.





Road Over/Under Bridges:

To improve the safety and reduce inconvenience to road users, busy level crossings are being replaced by Road Over/Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs) gradually. The works of ROBs/RUBs in lieu of busy level crossings are sanctioned on cost sharing basis with the concerned State Governments/Local Authorities. During the year, a total of 38 works were completed on Zonal Railways.

As on 31st March, 2009 there are total 1,337 ROBs/RUBs works at various stages of planning and execution, out of which, 830 are sanctioned on cost sharing basis, 195 on deposit terms, 52 on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis and 260 under NHDP and being constructed by NHAI as single entity.





Level crossings:

As on March 31,2009, IR maintained 34,220 level crossings, out of which 17,244 had gate-keepers and 16,976 crossings were unmanned. In 2008-09, 259 unmanned level crossings were provided with gate keepers.





Land Management:

IR owns about 4.31 lakh hectares of land, which is mainly used for locating operational and services infrastructure such as track, stations, workshops, staff colonies, etc.