Top 5 List of Indian Railway Zones in India (2023) [Updated]

Indian Railway Zones: The easiest route to travel in India is to travel by train and it is the largest traffic highway in India, in which all passengers of India take advantage of the journey.

As we know, the largest traffic route in India is the railways, which Indian Railways have created different “Railway Zones in India” to interlock, so that all the information on the train is kept by the government.

Indian Railway is well-reputed and a great corporation in India. Throughout the country, it spread at a huge level.

Now it has been divided into 18 zones and that zones are later on subdivided into 70 divisions, which make it smooth to manage the functions and duties of the corporation. Here is the list of some of the main zones in India.

Railway Zone in India

1. Central Railway
2. East Central Railway
3. East Coast Railway
4. Eastern Railway
5. Konkan Railway
6. North Central Railway
7. North Eastern Railway
8. North Western Railway
9. Northeast Frontier Railway
10. Northern Railway
11. South Central Railway
12. South East Central Railway
13. South Eastern Railway
14. South Western Railway
15. Southern Railway
16. West Central Railway
17. Western Railway
18. Southern Coast Railway

Top 5 Indian Railway Zones in India (2022)

1. Central Railway

Central Railway is broadest zones and is also popular for starting India’s first railway line for passengers on 16th April 1853 which travels from Mumbai to Thane. Its headquarter is at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus located in Mumbai.

It includes Pune, Nagpur, Bhusa Wal, Solapur, and Mumbai in its zone division. Central Railway was formed by merging a few railways owned by the government including Peninsula The Great Indian Railway, Nizam State Railway, etc.

Gitanjali Express, Deccan Queen, Punjab Mail, Hussain Sagar Express, and Pushpak Express are the trains that run majorly under the Central Railway. The transportation of union, cement, petroleum products, and many more things are carried out in this zone route by Central Railway produces a huge amount of profit to The Indian Railways.

2. Eastern Railway

Eastern Railway is counted among all the 18 zones of the Railways of India. The headquarter of the Eastern Railway is situated in Kolkata, India. It includes Howrah, Asansol, Malda, and Sealdah in its divisions of the zone.

The division’s headquarter name is given after the name of the city. Later on, Eastern Railway zones involve stations of category A1 and A, which includes places such as Howrah, Bhagalpur, Sealdah, Asansol, and many more stations.

It was formed by comprising Asansol, Howrah, and Dunyapur, the three lower East Indian Railway divisions, and was initiated on 14th April 1952.

3. Northern Railway

Northern railway’s headquarter is situated at Baroda House, in New Delhi. It was initiated by merging Bikaner Railway, Eastern Punjab Railway, Jodhpur Railway, and the three East India Railway divisions on 14th April 1952.

The divisions of Northern Railway include Firozpur, Delhi, Lucknow NR, Ambala, and Moradabad. The major stations of the railway this zone includes are Anand Vihar Terminal, Delhi Junction, Lucknow Charbagh, Ayodhya Junction, Varanasi Junction, Chandigarh, Haridwar Junction, Bareilly Junction, and many more.

Northern Railway launched India’s first Computerized reservation system for the passengers of the train on 19th February 1986. It was also the first electric locomotive simulator and diesel launcher in India.

Additionally, the Jalandhar cantonment’s Bridge Workshop the Charbagh railway station locomotive workshop in Lucknow, the Ghaziabad’s signal and Telecom workshop, these workshops are also operated by Northern Railway.

4. Southern Railway

Southern Railway situated in India is shortened to SR and is exists in those 18 zones of the railway.

The headquarter of Southern Railway is situated in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The divisions of this Railway are Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Palakkad, and Thiruvananthapuram. This railway zone merging three states Railways involves the South Indian Company of Railway,

The Southern Mahratta and Madras Railway, and The Mysore State Railway. This Railway zone was initiated on 14th April 1957.

Generally, it travels through Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and in little areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In a year from those routes, more than 50 crore passengers travel.

5. Western Railway

Western Railway is shortened as WR and is also mentioned in one of those 18 zones of Railway in India. The headquarters of Western Railway is situated at Church gate, Mumbai and Maharashtra.

This Western Railway includes the Ahmedabad, Ratnam, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, and Mumbai WR as its divisions in India. Western Railway zone combining several railways owned by the state government

which includes the state of Gujrat, a few portions of the state of Western Madhya Pradesh along with Coastal Maharashtra.

This Railway zone was initiated on 05th November 1951. Western Railway zone involves routes that come majorly within this zone such as Central Ahmedabad of Mumbai, Central Ratnam of Mumbai, and Paharpur Ahmedabad.

Indian Railway Zones in Table Format

There are a total of 18 Railway Zones in India of Indian Railways which are given below in a table. In 2019, the Southern Coast Railway was declared as the 18th Indian Zone, in which Vishakhapatnam was made the headquarters of this zone.

During 2009-2013, 92 requests for new zones and 45 new divisions were received. These were examined by a committee formed in 2012. The committee in its report had said that “none of the requests were justified”.

S/NO	Name	Code	Headquarters	Divisions
1	Central Railway	CR	Mumbai Maharashtra	Mumbai, Bhusawal, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur
2	East Central Railway	ECR	Vaishali Bihar	Danapur,Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Samastipur, Sonpur
3	East Coast Railway	ECoR	Bhubaneshwar Orissa	Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Waltair
4	Eastern Railway	ER	Kolkata West Bengal	Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda
5	Konkan Railway	KR	Navi Mumbai	Karwar, Ratnagiri
6	North Central Railway	NCR	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi
7	North Eastern Railway	NER	Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh	Izzatnagar, Lucknow NER, Varanasi
8	North Western Railway	NWR	Jaipur Rajasthan	Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur
9	Northeast Frontier Railway	NFR	Guwahati Assam	Alipurduar, Katihar, Rangiya, Lumding, Tinsukia
10	Northern Railway	NR	New Delhi	Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Lucknow NR, Moradabad
11	South Central Railway	SCR	Secunderabad Telangana	Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur, Nanded
12	South East Central Railway	SECR	Bilaspur Chhattisgarh	Bilaspur, Raipur, Nagpur SEC
13	South Eastern Railway	SER	Nagpur Maharashtra	Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi
14	South Western Railway	SWR	Hubli Karnataka	Hubballi, Bengaluru, Mysuru
15	Southern Railway	SR	Chennai Tamilnadu	Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram
16	West Central Railway	WCR	Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh	Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota
17	Western Railway	WR	Mumbai Maharashtra	Mumbai WR, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara
18	Southern Coast Railway	SR	Visakhapatnam	Vijayawada, Guntur,

FQA’s: Indian Zones in 2022

How many rail zones are there in India? Before 2019, a total of 17 Indian rail zones were included but in 2019 the Southern Coast Railway was declared as the 18th Indian Zone, in which Visakhapatnam was made the headquarters of this zone and together it has a total of 18 zones.

Which is the smallest railway zone in India? NER has 3,402.46 route km with 486 stations. NER primarily serves the areas of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the Western districts of Bihar.

Conclusion

As we all know that transportation is one of the most important parts of Indian geography. Generally, there are three transportation types in India.

Among them, the Indian Railway frames in a huge amount in Asia and is at fourth place in the World. So, these Railway Zones in India and divisions play a very important role, they make transportation easier.

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