Question

What is the purpose of dividing the railways into zones?

Answer 1

Hint: Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body that operates India's national train system under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Railways. As of 31 March 2020, it operates the world's fourth-largest rail network, with a track length of 67,956 kilometres.

Complete answer:
In 1951, when Southern (14 April 1951), Central (5 November 1951) and Western (5 November 1951) regions were created, Indian railways started to be organised into regional zones.

The seven-member Indian Railway Committee has the Chairman of the Indian Railways who reports to the Ministry of Railways. The office of the Railway Board is mostly managed by the organised Group A Railway Services and the Railway Board Secretariat.

Indian Railway is split into 18 zones, with managers reporting to the Board of Railway. The zones are also subdivided into 71 divisions led by railway divisions (DRM). Technical, electronic, electrical, signals and telecommunications, shop, accounting, management, commercial, protection and operational divisions are responsible for the management and maintenance of their respective DRMs. Station masters monitor individual stations and train movements throughout the territories of their stations. Furthermore, the Railway Board has a number of manufacturing and training centres, public sector enterprises and other departments.

Indian railways have grown dramatically over the last 150 years. Its enormous scale has placed the central management structure under stress. The rail system has now been split into 18 zones to alleviate this burden.

Note: In 1832, Madras made the first railway proposals for India. Red Hill Railway was the first train of this country to run from Red Hills to Chintadripet in Madras in 1837, built by Arthur Cotton to transport granite for building the road.

India's first passenger train, operating the Greater India Peninsula and carrying three steam engines (Sahib, Sindh and Sultan) was run on 16 April 1853 between Bori Bunder (Mumbai) and Thanne for 34 kilometres with 400 passengers in 14 walkways on a broad gauge path of 1.676 metres.