Ministry of Railways (India)

The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. The Indian Railways is the rail network operated and administered by the Railway Board constituted by the ministry. The ministry along with the Railway Board is housed inside Rail Bhawan in New Delhi. It is headed by the Minister of Railways. With more than 1.2 million employees, it is one of the world's largest employers.

History

The first railway track was operational in Madras in 1837 and the first passenger train ran in Bombay in 1853. But the earlier railways were operated by private companies with the earliest being the Madras Railway established in 1845 and the Great Indian Peninsular Railway incorporated in 1849. In October 1901, the Secretary of State for India in Council appointed Thomas Robertson as a special commissioner for Indian Railways to prepare a report on the administration of Indian Railways. In his report in 1903, Thomas recommended setting up of a three-member Railway Board headed by a chief commissioner. 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. In 1944, all the railway companies were taken over by the Government. The ministry of railways was part of the Ministry of Transport after the independence in 1947 and John Mathai served as its first minister from 1947 till 1948. On 17 April 1957, Jagjivan Ram became the first to head the standalone Minister of Railways. 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.

The Ministry of Railways was merged with the Ministry of Shipping and Transport and the Department of Civil Aviation on 25 September 1985 to form the Ministry of Transport and Bansi Lal, who served as the Railways Minister prior to the merger became the first holder of the new office. However, on 22 October 1986, the Ministry of Railways was again separated into an independent ministry and has been the same since then.

In 2004, the board is expanded by the introduction of two new members responsible for signalling & telecom and for stores respectively. In December 2019, the Union Cabinet decided to reduce the size of the board from eight to five.

Railway Budget

The first railway budget was presented in 1924. The last Railway Budget was presented on 25 February 2016 and on 21 September 2016, Government of India approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017. The railway budget was estimated to be for the financial year 2023–24.

Organisation

{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1em"

|+ Administrative officials

!Title

!Name

|Minister of Railways

|Ashwini Vaishnaw

|Minister of State, Railways

|V. Somanna, Ravneet Singh Bittu

|Chairman and CEO of Railway Board

|Satish Kumar

The ministry has a union minister and one or more ministers of state. The railway board reports to the union ministry with the directorates of traction, engineering, traffic, rolling stock, signalling, materials, personnel, Railway Protection Force (RPF), finance, health and safety reporting to the board. Indian Railways is a statutory body that reports to parliament and is under the ownership of ministry of railways. Indian Railways is further divided into 18 administrative zones (17 operational), headed by general managers who report to the board along with the heads of other institutions and undertakings owned by the Indian Railways. Also part of the board are four director generals responsible for human resources, health, RPF and safety respectively. The last Railway Budget was presented on 25 February 2016 and on 21 September 2016, Government of India approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017. The railway budget is estimated to be for the financial year 2023–24.

Railway ministers

The Minister of Railways (Hindi: ) is the head of the ministry and a member of the union council of ministers of India. The position of the Minister of Railways is usually held by a minister of cabinet rank and is often assisted by one or two junior Ministers of State.

John Mathai was the first Minister of Railways. Lal Bahadur Shastri who served as the Minister of Railways and Transport from 1952 until 1956 became the second Prime Minister of India in 1964. Four prime ministers, namely Rajiv Gandhi, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (twice) and Manmohan Singh (twice) have briefly held the portfolio of the Minister of Railways during their premiership. Mohsina Kidwai was the first female to hold the charge of the ministry (as Minister of Surface Transport) while Mamata Banerjee is the first female to have served as the Minister of Railways. while Suresh Angadi is the only minister of state to die in office.

The current Minister of Railways is Ashwini Vaishnaw of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been in office since 7 July 2021 while V. Somanna and Ravneet Singh are the ministers of state for railways.

Cabinet Ministers

Key: Assassinated or died in office
Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ Indian Railway Ministers

! rowspan="2" colspan="2"| Portrait

! rowspan="2" style="width:19em" |Minister

! colspan="3" |Term of office

! rowspan="2" style="width:8em" |Political party

! rowspan="2"| Ministry

! rowspan="2" style="width:9em" |Prime Minister

!style="width:6em"| From

!style="width:6em"| To

!Period

! colspan="9" |Minister of Transport

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|John Mathai

| 1947

| 1948

|Indian National Congress

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nehru I

|Jawaharlal Nehru

! colspan="9" |Minister of Transport and Railways

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar

| 1948

| 1952

|rowspan="3"| Indian National Congress

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nehru I

|rowspan="3"| Jawaharlal Nehru

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Lal Bahadur Shastri

| 1952

| 1956

|rowspan="2" bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nehru II

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Jagjivan Ram

| 1956

| 1957

! colspan="9" |Minister of Railways

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Jagjivan Ram

| 1957

| 1962

|rowspan="9"| Indian National Congress

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nehru III

|rowspan="3"| Jawaharlal Nehru

|bgcolor=""|

| 70px

|Swaran Singh

| 1962

| 1963

|rowspan="2" bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nehru IV

|rowspan="2" bgcolor=""|

|rowspan="2"| 70px

|rowspan="2"| H. C. Dasappa

| 1963

| 1964

!rowspan="2"|

| 1964

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nanda I

|Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)

|rowspan="3" bgcolor=""|

|rowspan="3"| 70px

|rowspan="3"| S. K. Patil

| 1964

| 1966

!rowspan="3"|

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Shastri

|Lal Bahadur Shastri

| 1966

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Nanda II

|Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)

| 1966

| 1967

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Indira I

|rowspan="9"| Indira Gandhi

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|C. M. Poonacha

| 1967

| 1969

|rowspan="4" bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Indira II

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Ram Subhag Singh

| 1969

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Panampilly Govinda Menon

| 1969

| 1970

|rowspan="6"| Indian National Congress (R)

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Gulzarilal Nanda

| 1970

| 1971

|bgcolor=""|

| 70px

|Kengal Hanumanthaiah

| 1971

| 1972

|rowspan="4" bgcolor=""| Indira III

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|T. A. Pai

| 1972

| 1973

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Lalit Narayan Mishra

| 1973

| 1975

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Kamalapati Tripathi

| 1975

| 1977

|style="background:; color:white"|

| 70px

|Madhu Dandavate

| 1977

| 1979

|Janata Party

|bgcolor="#1F75FE"| Desai

|Morarji Desai

|style="background:; color:white"|

|70px

|T. A. Pai

| 1979

| 1980

|Janata Party (Secular)

|bgcolor="#6495ED"| Charan Singh

|Charan Singh

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Kamalapati Tripathi

| 1980

|rowspan="6"| Indian National Congress (I)

|rowspan="4" bgcolor=""| Indira IV

|rowspan="4"| Indira Gandhi

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Kedar Pandey

| 1980

| 1982

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Prakash Chandra Sethi

| 1982

|rowspan="2" bgcolor=""|

|rowspan="2"| 70px

|rowspan="2"| A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury

| 1982

| 1984

|bgcolor=""| Rajiv I

|rowspan="2"| Rajiv Gandhi

|bgcolor=""|

| 70px

|Bansi Lal

| 1984

| 1985

|bgcolor=""| Rajiv II

! colspan="9" |Minister of Transport

|bgcolor=""|

| 70px

|Bansi Lal

| 1985

| 1986

|rowspan="3"| Indian National Congress (I)

|rowspan="3" bgcolor=""| Rajiv II

|rowspan="3"| Rajiv Gandhi

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Rajiv Gandhi (Prime Minister)

| 1986

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Mohsina Kidwai

| 1986

! colspan="9" |Minister of Railways

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Madhavrao Scindia (MoS, I/C)

| 1986

| 1989

|Indian National Congress (I)

|bgcolor=""| Rajiv II

|Rajiv Gandhi

|style="background:; color:white"|

|70px

|George Fernandes

| 1989

| 1990

|Janata Dal

|style="background:#4C915F"| V. P. Singh

|V. P. Singh

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Janeshwar Mishra

| 1990

| 1991

|Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)

|style="background:#74C365"| Chandra Shekhar

|Chandra Shekhar

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|C. K. Jaffer Sharief

| 1991

| 1995

|rowspan="2"| Indian National Congress (I)

|rowspan="2" bgcolor=""| Rao

|rowspan="2"| P. V. Narasimha Rao

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|P. V. Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister)

| 1995

| 1996

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Prime Minister)

| 1996

|Bharatiya Janata Party

|style="background:#FFA551;"| Vajpayee I

|Self

|rowspan="2" bgcolor=""|

|rowspan="2"| 70px

|rowspan="2"| Ram Vilas Paswan

| 1996

| 1997

!rowspan="2"|

|rowspan="2"| Janata Dal

|style="background:#4C915F"| Deve Gowda

|H. D. Deve Gowda

| 1997

| 1998

|style="background:#4C915F"| Gujral

|Inder Kumar Gujral

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Nitish Kumar

| 1998

| 1999

|Samata Party

|rowspan="2" style="background:#FFA551;"| Vajpayee II

|rowspan="5"| Atal Bihari Vajpayee

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Ram Naik (MoS, I/C)

| 1999

|Bharatiya Janata Party

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Mamata Banerjee

| 1999

| 2001

|Trinamool Congress

|rowspan="3" style="background:#FFA551;"| Vajpayee III

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Prime Minister)

| 2001

|Bharatiya Janata Party

|style="background:; color:white"|

|70px

|Nitish Kumar

| 2001

| 2004

|Janata Dal (United)

|style="background:; color:white"|

|70px

|Lalu Prasad Yadav

| 2004

| 2009

|Rashtriya Janata Dal

|bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Manmohan I

|rowspan="10"| Manmohan Singh

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Mamata Banerjee

| 2009

| 2011

|Trinamool Congress

|rowspan="9" bgcolor="#87CEEB"| Manmohan II

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister)

| 2011

|Indian National Congress

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Dinesh Trivedi

| 2011

| 2012

|rowspan="2"| Trinamool Congress

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Mukul Roy

| 2012

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|C. P. Joshi

| 2012

|rowspan="5"| Indian National Congress

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Pawan Kumar Bansal

| 2012

| 2013

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|C. P. Joshi

| 2013

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister)

| 2013

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Mallikarjun Kharge

| 2013

| 2014

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|D. V. Sadananda Gowda

| 2014

|rowspan="6"| Bharatiya Janata Party

|rowspan="3" style="background:#FFA551;"| Modi I

|rowspan="6"| Narendra Modi

|bgcolor=""|

|70px

|Suresh Prabhu

| 2014

| 2017

|rowspan="2" bgcolor=""|

|rowspan="2"| 70px

|rowspan="2"| Piyush Goyal

| 2017

| 2019

!rowspan="2"|

| 2019

| 2021

|rowspan="2" style="background:#FFA551;"| Modi II

|rowspan="2"bgcolor=""|

| rowspan=2|70px

| rowspan=2|Ashwini Vaishnaw

| 7 July 2021

| 9 June 2024

| rowspan=2|

| 10 June 2024

|Incumbent

| style="background:#FFA551;|Modi III

Ministers of State

Key: Assassinated or died in office

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ Ministers of State

On 3 May 2013, the CBI arrested then minister of railways Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew, Vijay Singla for accepting an alleged bribe of from a middleman for the appointment of a particular person to the railway board. The railway board clarified that no rules had been broken during the appointment and suspended Mahesh, the person concerned.

References

External links

Official website of the Ministry of Railways