Railways
The first passenger train ran on 16 April 1853 from Bori Bunder (Mumbai) to Thane, 34 km. Indian Railways is among the largest networks in the world, about 68,000+ route km and about 7,000-plus stations (check the latest Year Book). It is a government-owned system managed by the Railway Board.
Gauges
| Gauge | Width | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Broad gauge | 1.676 m | Most of the network (above 95 percent), standard |
| Metre gauge | 1 m | North-east, parts of Rajasthan; being converted (Project Unigauge) |
| Narrow gauge | 0.762 m and 0.610 m | Hill railways |
Zones
- Indian Railways has 18 zones. The newest is South Coast Railway (Visakhapatnam), announced in 2019. Check the Indian Railways website for the current list.
- Headquarters (examples): Northern (Delhi), Central (Mumbai CST), Western (Mumbai Churchgate), Eastern (Kolkata), Southern (Chennai), South Central (Secunderabad), North Eastern (Gorakhpur), Northeast Frontier (Maligaon, Guwahati), East Coast (Bhubaneswar), Konkan Railway Corporation (Navi Mumbai; a separate company).
- Hill railways (UNESCO WHS): Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Kalka-Shimla Railway; Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Mumbai) is also a WHS.
- Northern Railway is the largest by route; Konkan Railway (741 km, 1998) is India's engineering marvel.
Important trains and records
- Vande Bharat: semi-high-speed indigenous trains from 2019.
- Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Gatimaan Express (160 km/h) and Tejas.
- Vivek Express (Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari) is the longest-distance train in India; Himsagar Express earlier (Jammu Tawi-Kanyakumari).
- Gorakhpur has the longest railway platform (1,366 m).
- Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC): Western (Dadri to JNPT, 1,506 km) and Eastern (Ludhiana to Sonnagar/Dankuni, about 1,337 km); run by DFCCIL.
- Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (bullet train) is under construction with Japan's help (check the status).
- Kavach is the indigenous automatic train protection system.
- Metro rail: Kolkata (first, 1984); Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, etc.
J&K railway
- Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) was completed in 2025 and includes the Chenab bridge and the Anji Khad bridge (India's first cable-stayed rail bridge).
- Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat began in June 2025 (check). Banihal-Qazigund tunnel (T-80): 11.2 km (Pir Panjal rail tunnel), the longest transport tunnel in India.
- Jammu Tawi and Kathua connect to the national network.
Keep practising
Notes are only half the work. Test yourself with questions and discuss doubts with other aspirants.
Prepared for exam revision from NCERT, standard geography textbooks, the Census of India 2011, the India State of Forest Report, IMD, Ministry of Agriculture and other official sources. Maps are schematic teaching maps, not Survey of India maps, and zone boundaries are approximate. Figures such as production, capacity, counts of parks and ports, and census status change, so check the latest official source before relying on them. Found a mistake? Tell us.