INDIAN RAILWAYS

Indian Railway Zones

Indian Railways has sprawled a huge network of rail tracks throughout the country. Whether it is a remote village or developed metropolitans, Indian Railway serve the rail users in each and every part of the country. This widespread network is classified into sixteen zones for administrative purposes. Each and every zonal railway further comprises several divisions. Calcutta Metro is exclusively operated by Indian Railways, yet it doesn't form the part of any zone. Konkan Railway is the recent addition to the listed railway zones of India that is controlled by the Railway Ministry and the Railway Board. The list embracing the names of seventeen railway zones, abbreviations, headquarters and date of establishment is given here.

S.No	Name	Abbr.	Headquarters	Date of Establishment
1.	Northern Railway	NR	Delhi	April 14, 1952
2.	North Eastern Railway	NER	Gorakhpur	1952
3.	Northeast Frontier Railway	NFR	Maligaon (Guwahati)	1958
4.	Eastern Railway	ER	Kolkata	April 14, 1952
5.	South Eastern Railway	SER	Kolkata	1955
6.	South Central Railway	SCR	Secunderabad	Oct' 2, 1966
7.	Southern Railway	SR	Chennai	April 14, 1951
8.	Central Railway	CR	Mumbai	Nov' 5, 1951
9.	Western Railway	WR	Mumbai	Nov' 5, 1951
10.	South Western Railway	SWR	Hubli	April 1, 2003
11.	North Western Railway	NWR	Jaipur	Oct' 1, 2002
12.	West Central Railway	WCR	Jabalpur	April 1, 2003
13.	North Central Railway	NCR	Allahabad	April 1, 2003
14.	South East Central Railway	SECR	Bilaspur, CG	April 1, 2003
15.	East Coast Railway	ECoR	Bhubaneswar	April 1, 2003
16.	East Central Railway	ECR	Hajipur	Oct' 1, 2002
17.	Konkan Railway	KR	Navi Mumbai	Jan' 26, 1998

The major railway zones that have been covered here are as follows:

Central Indian Railway
The Central Railway (CR) is perhaps the oldest railway zone of Indian Railways. This is one amongst the largest of the sixteen zones bifurcated by Indian Railways.

Eastern Indian Railway
The Eastern Railway is one of the major zones of Indian Railways. Fairley Place in Kolkata being its headquarters, the Eastern zone is segregated into four divisions including Howrah, Malda, Sealdah, and Asansol for better administration.

Northern Indian Railway
The Northern Railway (NR) is one amongst the nine older zones of Indian Railways. Delhi, the capital city of India, serves as the headquarters of Northern Railway.

Southern Indian Railway
Southern Railway (SR) is credited to be the first railway zone that sought establishment in liberated India. On April 14th 1951, Southern Railway was established by combining three state railways including Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, South Indian Railway and Mysore State Railway.

Western Indian Railway
The Western Railway (WR) is one amongst the most hustling rail networks in India. Along with headquarters of Central Railway, Mumbai enjoys the authority over this railway network too, being the headquarters sited at Churchgate (Mumbai).