Indian Railways Zones and Facts: Complete Exam Notes

The correct answer is B, Bori Bunder and Thane. On 16 April 1853 the first passenger train in India ran about 34 kilometres from Bori Bunder in Bombay to Thane on the line of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, drawn by three locomotives named Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. Option A is wrong but it is a real event of the next year, since the first train in eastern India ran in 1854 from Howrah to Hooghly on the East Indian Railway. Option C is wrong; the Madras Railway opened its first passenger line in 1856, three years after Bombay. Option D is wrong because the Bombay to Poona route is remembered for the Deccan Queen of 1930 and not for the first train. Fix the triple of 1853, Bori Bunder and Thane, because a paper may ask for the year, the stations or the distance separately.

The correct answer is C, Gorakhpur. The North Eastern Railway has its headquarters at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, and the zone despite its name serves eastern Uttar Pradesh and northern Bihar rather than the north eastern states. Option A is wrong, and it is the intended trap, because Guwahati, or more precisely Maligaon in Guwahati, is the headquarters of the Northeast Frontier Railway, a different zone whose name is only one word apart. Option B is wrong since Hajipur in Bihar is the headquarters of the East Central Railway. Option D is wrong because Prayagraj is the headquarters of the North Central Railway. The safest way to hold these is by the pair of similar names: North Eastern goes with Gorakhpur and Northeast Frontier goes with Maligaon in Guwahati.

The correct answer is B, Southern Railway. The Southern Railway was formed on 14 April 1951 and was the first zone created when the old company railways were regrouped after independence. Option A is wrong and Option C is wrong for the same reason: the Central Railway and the Western Railway were both formed later in the same year, on 5 November 1951, so they belong to the first year of zoning but not to the first zone. Option D is wrong because the Eastern Railway came into being in 1952, after the three zones of 1951. Many candidates answer Central Railway because Mumbai feels like the natural first headquarters, so remember instead that the earliest date in April belongs to the south. The Railway Board, which supervises the zones, is older still and dates from 1905.

The correct answer is B, South Central Railway. The South Central Railway has its headquarters at Secunderabad in Telangana. Option A is wrong because the South Western Railway is headquartered at Hubballi in Karnataka, an answer worth learning separately because the spelling changed from the older Hubli. Option C is wrong; the South East Central Railway has its headquarters at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Option D is wrong because the East Coast Railway is headquartered at Bhubaneswar in Odisha. All four zones carry a compound direction in their names, which is exactly why the paper setter groups them, so revise the southern block together: Chennai for Southern, Secunderabad for South Central, Hubballi for South Western, Kolkata for South Eastern and Bilaspur for South East Central. The headquarters city, not the state, is what the paper wants.

The correct answer is B, Dibrugarh. The Vivek Express runs between Dibrugarh in upper Assam and Kanniyakumari at the southern tip of the mainland, covering roughly 4,200 kilometres, the longest route of any train in the country. It was introduced in 2011, the one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary year of Swami Vivekananda, which is how it got its name. Option A is wrong; Guwahati is the largest station of the region and the headquarters city of the Northeast Frontier Railway, but the Vivek Express starts further east. Option C is wrong because Silchar lies in the Barak valley and is not a terminus of this train. Option D is wrong; Agartala in Tripura was connected to the broad gauge network much later and has its own long distance trains, but not this one. Remember the pair Dibrugarh and Kanniyakumari as the two ends of the country.

The correct answer is C, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, inscribed in 1999 as the first of the three lines that together form the World Heritage property called the Mountain Railways of India. Option A is wrong because the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Tamil Nadu, the only rack railway in India, was added to the same property in 2005. Option B is wrong since the Kalka to Shimla Railway in Himachal Pradesh was added in 2008 and is therefore the last of the three. Option D is wrong because the Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra is a narrow gauge heritage line that has been proposed for inscription but is not part of the property. Note that the fourth railway heritage site in India is not a line at all but the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus building in Mumbai, inscribed in 2004.

The correct answer is C, 1,676 millimetres. Broad gauge in India measures 1,676 millimetres between the inner faces of the rails, and it carries almost all long distance traffic; the conversion of older lines to this gauge is called Project Unigauge. Option A is wrong because 1,000 millimetres is metre gauge, which survives on a few heritage and branch lines. Option B is wrong, and it is the sharpest distractor, because 1,435 millimetres is standard gauge, used worldwide and in India on metro systems rather than on the main railway network. Option D is wrong since 762 millimetres is narrow gauge, with a lighter 610 millimetre gauge on hill lines such as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Learn the four figures in descending order and the question answers itself whichever gauge is asked.

The correct answer is B, electric locomotives. Chittaranjan Locomotive Works in West Bengal is the locomotive plant of Indian Railways and builds electric locomotives; it began with steam locomotives and turned to electric traction. Option A is wrong because coaches are built at the Integral Coach Factory at Perambur in Chennai, the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab and the Modern Coach Factory at Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong; wheels and axles come from the Rail Wheel Factory at Yelahanka near Bengaluru. Option D is wrong because signalling gear is not made at a dedicated production unit of this kind. A related fact often asked alongside is that the diesel locomotive plant at Varanasi, now the Banaras Locomotive Works, was set up as the Diesel Locomotive Works, and that the oldest railway workshop and training institute is at Jamalpur in Bihar, from 1888.

The correct answer is B, 1905. The Railway Board was constituted in 1905 to supervise the many private railway companies then operating in India, and it continues as the apex body of the Ministry of Railways. Option A is wrong because 1853 is the year of the first passenger train from Bori Bunder to Thane, not of any administrative body. Option C is wrong, though the year matters for a different reason: the Acworth Committee recommended the separation of railway finances from general finances, and from 1924 the Railway Budget began to be presented separately, an arrangement that lasted until 2016 before the merger with the Union Budget from 2017 to 2018. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the zones were created, beginning with the Southern Railway in April. Keep 1905 for the Board, 1924 for the separate budget and 1951 for the zones.

The correct answer is B, arch bridge. The Chenab Bridge, built on the Udhampur to Srinagar to Baramulla rail link, rises about 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab and is the highest railway arch bridge in the world, its single steel arch spanning the gorge. Option A is wrong, although the same rail link carries the Anji Khad bridge, which is India first cable stayed rail bridge, and candidates often swap the two. Option C is wrong because no suspension bridge on the Indian railway network holds such a record; suspension design is used for road bridges of long span. Option D is wrong; cantilever construction is associated with older river bridges of the network and not with the Chenab crossing. Learn the pair of Chenab with the arch and Anji Khad with cable stays, since both appear in the same set of options.