Ministry of Railways
Indian government ministry responsible for rail transport
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March 2025 | Indian Railways had 0.13 million women employees, including 2,162 female loco pilots, 794 female train managers, and 1,699 female station masters, marking a significant milestone in gender diversity within the organization. |
2023 | At least 313 people died in 40 train accidents during the 2023-24 period. |
June 2022 | First private passenger train was flagged off from Coimbatore. |
2021 | New AC 3-tier economy coaches were introduced, featuring an improved design that accommodates 83 berths per coach with enhanced facilities. |
2021 | Ashwini Vaishnaw becomes Railway Minister, serving from 2021 to present. |
July 7 2021 | Raosaheb Danve appointed as Minister of State for Railways. |
2020 | Initiated plans to become a net-zero carbon emission railway by 2030, including implementing rainwater harvesting, solar-powered trains, and sustainable lighting. |
2020 | Group D employees were merged into Group C, restructuring the employee classification system of Indian Railways. |
May 2020 | Resumed passenger services in a phased manner after the COVID-19 shutdown. |
March 2020 | Announced a nationwide shutdown of passenger services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing freight operations for essential goods. |
2019 | Launched the Vande Bharat Express, a semi-high speed self-propelled train-set. |
2019 | Indian Railways reported zero passenger deaths due to accidents for the first time in its history, marking a significant safety milestone. |
2019 | Completed removal of all unstaffed level crossings. |
2019 | South Coast Railway (SCoR) was proposed to be created as the eighteenth zone, though not yet fully operational. |
December 2019 | The Union Cabinet decided to reduce the size of the railway board from eight to five members. |
May 31 2019 | Suresh Angadi appointed as Minister of State for Railways during Modi's second term. |
2018 | Indian Railways operated 13,523 passenger trains daily and carried 8.44 billion passengers during this year. |
2018 | Semi-high speed self-propelled Vande Bharat train-set was rolled out from Integral Coach Factory. Coach numbering system was also changed to indicate year of manufacture and sequence number. |
2017 | Piyush Goyal takes charge as Railway Minister, serving from 2017 to 2021. |
March 31 2017 | Announced a target to completely electrify the entire rail network by 2023. |
September 21 2016 | Government of India approved the merger of rail and general budgets, effective from 2017, ending the tradition of a separate Railway Budget. |
February 25 2016 | Last standalone Railway Budget was presented before the proposed budget merger. |
2015 | First Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered trains were rolled out. |
2015 | The last First Class coach was de-commissioned from normal express trains, marking the end of this traditional travel class. |
2014 | Suresh Prabhu becomes Railway Minister, serving from 2014 to 2017. |
May 27 2014 | Manoj Sinha becomes Minister of State for Railways under Narendra Modi's first government. |
May 27 2014 | D. V. Sadananda Gowda becomes Railway Minister in Narendra Modi's first government, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party. |
May 3 2013 | The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Vijay Singla, nephew of then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, for allegedly accepting a bribe related to a railway board appointment. The railway board subsequently clarified no rules were broken and suspended an employee named Mahesh. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Ministry of Railways (India), Indian Railways organisational structure & Indian Railways, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.