Indian Railways is a state owned Indian company owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is one of the largest rail networks in the world comprising 115,000 km (71,000 miles) of track over a route of 65,000 km (40,000 miles) and 7,500 stations. As of December 2012, it carried more than 25 million passengers per day (more than 9 billion on an annual basis).
In 2011, IR transported more than 8.9 billion passengers per year or more than 24 million passengers per day (approximately half of which were suburban passengers) and 2.8 million tons of daily cargo. In 2011-2012 Indian Railways had revenues of 1119848.9 million (US $ 17 billion), consisting of 696759.7 million (US $ 11 billion) freight and 286455.2 million (US $ 4.4 billion) passenger passages. The railways were first introduced to India in 1853 from Bombay to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalized as a unit, the Railways of India, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates long-distance and suburban rail systems in a multi-gauge network of wide gauges, gauges and narrow gauges. It also has locomotive and coach production facilities in various locations in India and is assigned codes that identify its caliber, type of power and type of operation. Its operations span twenty-eight states and seven union territories and also provide limited international services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Indian Railways is the world's ninth largest commercial or utility employer by number of employees, with more than 1.4 million employees. Regarding rolling stock, IR has more than 239,281 freight cars, 59,713 passenger cars and 9,549 locomotives (43 steam, 5,197 diesel and 4,309 electric locomotives). The trains have a 5 digit numbering system as the Indian railways run about 10,000 trains daily. As of March 31, 2013, 23,541 km (36.6%) of the total length of the route of 65,000 km (40,000 miles) was electrified. [4] Since 1960, almost all sections electrified in IR use a traction of 25,000 volts AC through overhead catenary.