Central Railway zone


Central Railway is one of the 18 zones of Indian Railways. Its headquarters is in Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. It has the distinction of operating first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Mumbai to Thane on 16 April 1853.

History

The railway zone was formed on 5 November 1951 by grouping several government-owned railways, including the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Scindia State Railway of the former princely state of Gwalior, Nizam State Railway, Wardha Coal State Railway and the Dholpur Railways.
The Central Railway zone formerly included large parts of Madhya Pradesh and part of southern Uttar Pradesh, which made it the largest railway zone in India in terms of area, track mileage and staff. These areas became the new West Central Railway zone in April 2003.
The Central Railway General Manager's official residence, 'Glenogle'-a Grade II-B heritage bungalow, is located on Bhausaheb Hire Marg, adjacent to the Maharashtra Chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

Routes

Main/Long Routes of Central Railway

High

Wadi
Central railway zone connects to other Zones of Indian railways as at:

Western Railway Zone

, Andheri, Goregaon, Dadar, Vasai Road

Konkan Railway Zone

Secunderabad railway division
Nagpur SEC railway division
Hubballi railway division
Bhopal division
Constructed in 1907, the narrow gauge Matheran Hill Railway connects Neral on the Mumbai-Chennai main line with the hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, east of Mumbai. Neral is linked to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus by frequent suburban trains. Steam engines have now been replaced by diesel locomotives. The route is noted for its sharp curves.

Organisation

The central railway covers a large part of the state of Maharashtra and small part of Southern Madhya Pradesh and North-Eastern Karnataka. It is organized into five divisions: Mumbai, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. The details of the network divisionwise are as follows

Mumbai Division

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The number of stations category-wise under these five railway divisions under the Cental Railway Zones are as follows :
A-1 : 7, A : 20, B : 10, C : 80, D : 45, E : 221, F : 93, Total : 476

Ongoing Projects

New lines

Solapur - Bhalwani doubling work completed
Nagpur-Wardha
Jalgaon-Bhsawal

Hexupling

Some of the major trains operated by Central Railway zone are as follows:
NumberTrain NameStarting StationTerminating Station
22221/22222Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus - Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani ExpressMumbai CSMTHazrat Nizamuddin.
12123/12124Deccan QueenMumbai CSMTPune Jn.
12137/12138Punjab MailMumbai CSMTFirozpur Cantt.
11035/11036Sharavati ExpressDadarMysuru Jn.
11085/11086Lokmanya Tilak Terminus - Madgaon AC Double Decker ExpressKurla LTTMadgaon Jn.
12289/12290Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus - Nagpur Duronto ExpressMumbai CSMTNagpur.
22107/221078Latur ExpressMumbai CSMTLatur.
11301/11302Udyan ExpressMumbai CSMTBengaluru City
12025/12026Pune - Secunderabad Shatabdi ExpressPuneSecunderabad Jn.
12051/12052Dadar Madgaon Jan Shatabdi ExpressDadarMadgaon Jn.
12113/12114Pune - Nagpur Garib Rath ExpressPuneNagpur Jn.
12115/12116Siddheshwar ExpressMumbai CSMTSolapur
22119/22120Mumbai CSMT - Karmali Tejas ExpressMumbai CSMTKarmali
12105/12106Vidarbha ExpressMumbai CSMTGondia Jn.
11039/11040Maharashtra ExpressKolhapur SCSMTGondia Jn.
11023/11024Sahyadri ExpressMumbai CSMTKolhapur SCSMT
11027/11028Mumbai Chennai MailMumbai CSMTChennai Central