Ministry of Railways (India)

The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. Indian Railways is a statutory body managed by the railway board under the ownership of the ministry that operates the national railway system. 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 March 1905, the railway branch of the Public Works Department was transferred to the newly established railway board under the department of commerce and industry by the Indian Railway Board Act. 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. Pursuant to the Acworth committee's recommendations in 1921, the railway board was expanded to four members with the addition of a financial commissioner in 1924 apart from the chief commissioner, one commissioners responsible for ways and works, projects and stores and the other responsible for general administration, staff and traffic.

In 1929, an additional member was added to the board and was assigned the responsibility for staff, so that the member in charge of traffic could focus solely on transport and commercial matters. In 1944, all the railway companies were taken over by the Government. In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for re-organising Indian Railways into six regional zones and re-constituting the railway board to four members with the senior-most functional member appointed the chairman of the board with no absolute over riding power. 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 board was expanded with an additional member responsible for electrical engineering in 1972 and a further member responsible for health in 1976. 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.

Organisation
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, 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. The railway board consists of a chairman, four members responsible for operations, business development, human resources, infrastructure and finance respectively. Also part of the board are four director generals responsible for human resources, health, RPF and safety respectively.

Railway Budget
The first railway budget was presented in 1924. Since then, Railway budget was presented as a standalone budget every year before the union budget till 2016. 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 inr 2646000000000 for the financial year 2023–24.

Criticism and controversies
On 14 February 2008, Westinghouse Air Brake, admitted to a US federal court of violating Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) regulations by making improper payments from its subsidiary Pioneer Friction based in Kolkata, to government officials of the Indian railway board to obtain and retain business with the Railway Board and curb taxes.

On 3 May 2013, the CBI arrested then minister of railways Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew, Vijay Singla for accepting an alleged bribe of inr 9000000 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.