How many railway zones are in India?
There are 17 railway zones in India as of today. Each zone is headed by a General Manager (GM). Indian railways has nine production units working under the control of the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification(CORE) and eight construction organizations working under the Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) power. The list of the railway Zones with their headquarters is as follows:
Indian Railways was earlier known as ‘East Indian Railway Company’ founded in 1845 to serve British-India. This company merged with the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, Madras, and Southern Mahratta railway company to form East Indian Railway Company. In 1925, all four companies were made into ‘East Indian Railway.’ On 15th August 1947, India got its independence, and the East Indian railway was divided into three zones – North Eastern, Northern and Southern. The Government of India formed these with effect from 1st April 1952.
There is a total of 17 railway Zones in India as follows:
1. Central Railway zone headquartered at Mumbai CST, Maharashtra
2. Eastern Railway zone headquartered at Kolkata Chitpur, West Bengal
3. South East Central Railway zone headquartered at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
4. South Eastern Railway zone headquartered at Kolkata Howrah Maidan, West Bengal
5. South Western Railway zone headquartered at Hubli-Dharwad, Karnataka
6. Southern Railway zone headquartered at Chennai Central, Tamil Nadu
7. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFE) and East Coast Railway zone headquartered at Bhubaneswar Harbour Road, Odisha
8. North Central Railway zone headquartered at Allahabad Junction, Uttar Pradesh
9. North Eastern Railway zone headquartered at Gorakhpur Junction, Uttar Pradesh
10. North Western Railway zone headquartered at Jaipur Junction, Rajasthan
11. Northeast Frontier Railway zone headquartered at Maligaon, Guwahati in Assam
12. Northern Railway zone headquartered at Delhi Main, Delhi
13. South Central Railway zone headquartered at Secunderabad Jn., Telangana
14. South East Central Railway zone headquartered at Bilaspur Junction, Chhattisgarh
15. Southern Railway zone headquartered at Chennai Egmore, Tamil Nadu
16. West Central Railway zone headquartered at Jabalpur Junction in Madhya Pradesh
17. Western Railway zone headquartered at Mumbai Bandra Terminus, Maharashtra