Indian Railways is the state-owned railway company of India, which owns and operates most of the country's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India.
Indian railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 17 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily. It is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.4 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometres (39,350 miles). IR owns over 200,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives of rolling stock.
The production units / manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways, which are managed directly by the ministry are:
- Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
- Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi
- Diesel-Loco Modernisation Works, Patiala
- Integral Coach Factory, Chennai
- Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala
- Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore
Other independent units of Indian Railways are:
- Central Organization For Railway Electrification, Allahabad
- Central Organization For Modernization of Workshops, New Delhi
Important maintenance workshops of Indian Railways are:
- Southern Railway Workshop, Tiruchirapalli
- Rail Spring Karkhana, Gwalior
Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), Bangalore is an organization unrelated to the Indian Railways, however it manufactures coaches for both the Indian Railways and the Delhi Metro system.
A number of Public Sector Undertakings are under the administrative control of the ministry of railways. These units are:
- Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India
- Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation
- Konkan Railway Corporation
- Indian Railway Finance Corporation
- Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation
- Railtel Corporation of India – Telecommunication Networks
- RITES Ltd. – Consulting Division of Indian Railways
- IRCON International Ltd. – Construction Division
- Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
- Container Corporation of India
- Rail Land Development Authority is a statutory authority formed through an amendment of the Railways Act, 1989 for commercial development of vacant railway land.
- Centre for Railway Information Systems is an autonomous organisation under the Railway Board, which is responsible for developing the major software required by Indian Railways.
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