Railway zones in Indian Railway

Indian Railways is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world which transports over 18 million passengers and about 2 million tonnes of freight daily.Indian Railways has been divided into zones and which are further sub-divided into divisions.The Indian Railways increased its zones from six to eight in 1951, nine in 1952, and finally it reaches upto 16 in 2003. The total number of divisions are sixty-seven in numbers.Each zonal railway is has a certain number of divisions and each having a divisional headquarters.

The Kolkata Metro is operated by Indian Railways, but is not a part of any of the zones. Kolkata Metro is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.

All the sixteen zones including Kolkata Metro is headed by a General Manager who reports directly to the Railway Board.And the divisions further are under the control of Divisional Railway Managers (DRM). The divisional officers of engineering, mechanical, signal & telecommunication, personnel, operating, commercial and safety branches report to their respective Divisional Manager. Further in the hierarchy tree comes the Station Masters who control individual stations and the train movement through the track territory under their stations' administration under their supervision.