Indian Railways organisational structure

In March 1905, the railway branch of the Public Works Department was transferred to the newly established railway board under the department of commerce and industry by the Indian Railway Board Act.^[1] In 1908, the set up was re-organized on the recommendations of the Railway Finance Committee (1908) by constituting the Railway Board headed by a president as a separate department.^[2] Pursuant to the Acworth committee's recommendations in 1921, the railway board was expanded to four members with the addition of a financial commissioner in 1924 apart from the chief commissioner, one commissioners responsible for ways and works, projects and stores and the other responsible for general administration, staff and traffic.^[2] In 1929, an additional member was added to the board and was assigned the responsibility for staff, so that the member in charge of traffic could focus solely on transport and commercial matters.^[3] In 1950, the railway board was re-constituted to four members with the senior-most functional member appointed the chairman of the board with no absolute over riding power.^[4][5] In October 1954, the chairman of the board was made responsible for decisions on technical and policy matters, with the status of a principal secretary to the Government of India with an additional member added.^[5] The board was expanded with an additional member responsible for electrical engineering in 1972 and a further member responsible for health in 1976.^[6] In 2004, the board is expanded by the introduction of two new members responsible for signalling & telecom and for stores respectively.^[7] In December 2019, the Union Cabinet decided to reduce the size of the board from eight to five.^[8] The chairman of the railway board reports to the Ministry of Railways and act on behalf of the ministry. The following report to the railway board:^[9][10]

• General managers of various zones
• Heads of functional divisions
• Heads/Managers of production units
• Heads of Public Sector Undertakings
• Heads of railway institutes
• Heads of special divisions

The organization is divided into separate functional groups of traction, engineering, traffic, rolling stock, signalling, materials, personnel, RPF, finance, health and safety.^[11]

In 1944, all the railway companies in existence at the time were taken over by the Government.^[12] In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for re-organizing Indian Railways into six regional zones which were divided subsequently to create newer zones. As of 2026, there are 19 operational zones of Indian Railways.^[13] The zones are headed by a General manager and are further sub-divided into divisions. Each division is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), who are responsible for the operation and maintenance in the respective divisions.^[14] The 19 operational zones and their divisions are listed below. South Coast Railway zone is the newest railway zone.^[15]

In every zone, the functional verticals are represented by head of departments (HODs) responsible for the respective functions in the zone.^[38] Each division has functional staff who report to the geographical divisional managers and functional HODs in a matrix organization and are tasked with the operation and maintenance of assets.^[14]

Staff are classified into gazetted (Groups A and B) and non-gazetted (Groups C and D) employees with gazetted employees carrying out executive/managerial level tasks.^[39] As of March 2022, Groups A & B constitute 1.5% of the total workforce, while Group C & D account for 98.5%.^[16] 80% of Group-A employees are recruited through Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS) with remaining through promotions.^[40] The various Group A cadres are as below include:^[41]

• Central Civil Services recruitment through Civil Services Examination (CSE)
  • Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)
  • Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS)
  • Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS)
  • Indian Railway Protection Force Service (IRPFS)
• Central Engineering Services recruitment through Engineering Services Examination (ESE)
  • Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE)
  • Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE)
  • Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME)
  • Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE)
  • Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS)
• Central Health Science Services recruitment through Combined Medical Services Examination (CMSE)
  • Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS)

Group B employees are recruited by departmental promotional exams of Group C employees. Recruitment of Group C employees are through exams conducted by the Railway Recruitment Control Board (RRCB) and Group D staffs are recruited by zonal Railway Recruitment Cells (RRC).^[42] Indian Railways operates seven centralized training institutes and 295 training centers.^[16]

• Centralised Training Institutes of the Indian Railways