Role and function
The main areas of responsibility
- Motive Power availability (Locomotive sheds)
- Crew Management (Locomotive operations)
- Rolling Stock Management (Coaching depots, freight yards)
- Traffic restoration in case of accidents
- Production Units - Locomotives, Coaches, Wheel sets, etc.
- Repair and Manufacturing workshops
This organisation was central to all rolling stock operations when the only modes of traction were Steam Locomotives and Diesel Electric Locomotives. With the use of electric traction on the trunk routes, the responsibility of traction operations has been shared with the Electrical Department.
All the coaches and wagons are maintained by the Mechanical Department. The air-conditioning part of the coaches on the system was maintained by the Electrical Department. A Railway Board order to bring the entire rolling stock under unified maintenance of the Mechanical Department in 2003 was held in abeyance under pressure from Electrical Department Unions.
This has been adopted in 2016 wherein all locomotives (electric and diesel) including crew is now under electric department. The entire rolling stock maintenance including MEMU and train lighting of coaches is now under mechanical department. Accordingly, at Railway Board level post of Member Mechanical (MM) is redesignated as Member Rolling Stock (MRS).
Train operations
The responsibilities and assignments of train operations are loosely referred to as Open Line. A great deal of emphasis is placed on open line experience. Indeed, there are few cases of people who have succeeded in the organisation without a significant tenures on the Open Line.
From a general public's point of view the most exciting tasks are related to accident relief and traffic restoration. IRSME is responsible for designing, acquiring / building and maintenance of the accident relief infrastructure and organisation. Accidents are times of great stress and anxiety. In times of emergency, the appropriate officer is responsible for mobilizing the Accident Relief Medical Equipment (ARME) and Accident Relief Trains (ART).
Production units
The Indian Railways does a great deal of manufacturing and would rival any other engineering house in India. The overall manufacturing is split between the Production Units (managed independently) and the zonal workshops (managed by the zonal Railways)
Repair and manufacturing
The zonal railways have workshops that manufacture and repair equipment. These workshops can be very large (e.g. Kharagpur workshop has 12000 workers and is spread over 150 acres (0.61 km2) with 11 km of roads inside the premises). It is only the organisational structure that prevents them from being called production units.
Organisation
The IRSME is headed by a member rolling stock in the Railway Board (Ministry of Railways). Member rolling stock is better known by the acronym MRS.
In each of the zones the organisation is headed by a Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer. The PCME reports to the General Manager of the railway. The office of the Member Rolling Stock of the Railway Board guides the PCME on technical matters and policy.
At the divisional level the Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer head the organisation. The Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer reports to the Divisional Railway Manager of the division. Technical supervision is provided by the zonal Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer.
At entry level an IRSME officer works as ADME (Assistant Divisional Mechanical Engineer) and commands 50–250 staff.
Workshops are headed by Chief Works Manager. Since workshops are managed by the zonal Railways, the CWMs report to the PCME.
Production units, the manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways, are managed directly by the ministry. The general managers of the PUs report to the Railway Board. The production units are:
- Marathwada Rail coach factory, Latur
- Banaras Locomotive Works, Varanasi
- Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
- Patiala Locomotive Works, Patiala
- Integral Coach Factory, Chennai
- Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala
- Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli
- Wheel & Axle Plant, Bangalore
- Rail Spring Karkhana, Gwalior
- Rail Wheel Plant, Bela, Chhapra.
Jamalpur is a city in the Indian state of Bihar. It is situated 9 km from the Munger city centre. Jamalpur is a part of Munger-Jamalpur twin cities.It is main railhead for reaching Munger city.
Special Class Railway Apprentice (SCRA) was a programme by which candidates are selected by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) India, to train in the undergraduate program in mechanical engineering at the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jamalpur. This programme started in 1927 and is one of the oldest in India.
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Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop is a railway workshop established on February 8, 1862, as the first fully-fledged railway workshop facility in India. It was started by the East Indian Railway Company (EIR) as a result of the so-called "Railway Age" in India, which began in 1854.
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The Indian Railways Institute of Electrical Engineering (IRIEEN), Nashik, was set up by Indian Railways at Nashik in Maharashtra for imparting training to newly appointed officers of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, recruited through an Engineering Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi. The institute was set up in 1988 at Nashik, Maharashtra. The institute is headed by the director. He is assisted by a team of nine faculty members who have practical experience as well as technical qualifications.
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Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEN), Pune is the training institute for the Civil engineers of the Indian Railways. The institute had a modest start in 1959 as the Permanent Way Training School for training entry level Civil engineers. It is now a Centralised Training Institute and trains officers of the IRSE cadre of the Indian Railways.
The Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) is a prestigious group A central engineering services of the Indian railways. The officers of this service are responsible for managing the Electrical Engineering organisation of the Indian Railways.
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The Indian Railways Service of Engineers (IRSE) is one of the oldest group 'A' central engineering services recruited through the engineering services examination of the Union Public Service Commission. The officers of this service are responsible for administering the Civil Engineering organisation of the Indian Railways
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The Indian Railway Traffic Service, abbreviated as IRTS is a Prestigious Group 'A' Central Civil Service Cadre of the Government of India. IRTS in its present form was reconstituted in 1967. The IRTS Cadre functions under the Administrative Control of the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. The civil servants under this service are responsible for Operation and Business Development of Indian Railways in the country. On one hand, IRTS officers co-ordinate among various technical departments of the Indian Railways, while on the other hand, they form the public interface of the Indian Railways. Colloquially called Traffic Officers, they are the primary facilitators of Railway services right from Planning of freight movement, Passenger transport, Passenger amenities to Station Management and Infrastructure Planning.
The Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) is a Prestigious Group 'A' Central Civil Service cadre of the Government of India. The central civil servants of this service are responsible for managing the Human Resources of the Indian Railways and welfare of railway employees and their families. Railways has a work force of about 1.4 million employees. It is the only civil service of its kind in India and it creates a cadre of central civil servants specialized in human resource management in government of India. The total sanctioned strength of the service is '478' after cadre restructuring orders on 09.03.2019.
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Ashwani Lohani is a retired officer of Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers. He has earlier worked as the Chairman & Managing Director of Air India and the former Chairman of the Railway Board of Indian Railways. After being retired from Government service on 23 July 2020 he joined GMR Group where He is currently serving as chief executive officer.
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Suneet Sharma is the 2nd Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Railway Board, Indian Railways and the ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Government of India. Sharma is a Central Government Engineer of IRSME cadre of the 1982 batch.
