Southern Railway zone

The Southern Railway (abbreviated SR), headquartered at Chennai, is one of the 18 zones of Indian Railways. It is the earliest of the 18 zones of the Indian Railways created in independent India. It was created on 14 April 1951 by merging three state railways, namely, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway Company, and the Mysore State Railway. The South Indian Railway was originally created in the British colonial times as Great Southern India Railway Co founded in Britain in 1853 and registered in 1859. Its original headquarters was in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) and was registered as a company in London only in 1890. At present, after re-organization of existing railway zones and creation of new zones undertaken by the Indian Railways between 2002–03, Southern Railway has emerged as the 2nd largest zone after undertaking some gauge conversion projects and creation of new lines.

History

In 1944, all Railway companies were taken over by the Government. And three years later, when India woke up to independence in 1947, the stage was set for the integration of different Railways into smaller zones. In 1948, immediately after independence, there were as many as 42 different railway systems - a multiplicity of railway administrations, varying in size and standards.

The regrouping proposals put forward by the various committees were studied in great detail to ensure that a unification could be achieved with the least disturbance and dislocation. Important associations of railway-users, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the State Governments and acknowledged experts both in India and abroad were fully consulted.

Shri N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar - the then Minister for Railways, was the principal architect of the regrouping of Indian Railways. In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for Indian Railways into six Zonal systems, namely, the Northern, the North-Eastern, the Southern, the Central, the Eastern and the Western.

The Southern Railway zone  was the first zone to be formed. Created on 14 April 1951 by the merger of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway and the Mysore State Railway, the economic and geographical factors of this zone facilitated an early integrated network. This amalgamation was a major step towards streamlining and organizing the working pattern of the Railway system.

Shri K R Ramanujam was appointed the first General Manager of the newly formed Southern Railways.

Organisation
The Southern Railway is headed by the General Manager (HAG+) Officer, assisted by an Additional General Manager (HAG). Each department is headed by a PHOD\CHOD of the rank of HAG\SAG.

Jurisdiction
Southern Railway has its headquarters in Chennai and has the following six divisions: 

It covers the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and small portions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. More than 50 crore passengers travel on the network every year.

Operations 
The zone operates both passenger and freight trains. The biggest station of the Zone is Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station. Other major stations of the Zone includes Chennai Egmore, Arakkonam Junction, Vellore Katpadi Junction, Mangalore Central, Mangalore Jn., Coimbatore, Salem, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Viluppuram, Ernakulam Junction, Kottayam Railway Station,  Madurai, Tirunelveli, Trichy, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Trivandrum Kochuveli, Nagercoil Junction, Jolarpettai Junction , Erode, Kollam, Thrissur, Tirur, Kannur, Shoranur, and Puducherry. Passenger trains range from day intercity trains to overnight trains, long-distance trains to other zones, Shatabdi and passenger trains stopping at many stations. The zone owns a large number of coaches.  These are maintained at coach care centres. Basin Bridge coach care centre serving Chennai central is one of the biggest in the country. Most major stations have a coach care Centre. The stations which don't have such facilities are served by trains through sometimes complex rake-sharing arrangements which also increases the utilization of the coaches. Apart from these Centres, the zone has MEMU and DEMU car sheds. These are available in Avadi, Trichy, Erode, Palakkad and Kollam. The zone also operates suburban system in Chennai.

Freight operations mainly include container traffic from all the ports falling under its jurisdiction ( Chennai, Mangalore, Ennore, Cochin and Tuticorin are some of the major ports) and coal-traffic bound to the thermal power stations in Tamil  Nadu state from the ports. Public sector oil companies also transport petroleum products from refineries to storage terminals using the zone. Cement plants also use the railway system extensively. Food grains are also transported through freight trains. Most of the lines inside ports, thermal stations, manufacturing industries and owned by the respective companies and the zone provides a link connecting its network and the wagons and locomotives. There is a wagon care centre in Tondiarpet, Chennai.

The zone has electric loco sheds at Royapuram, Erode and Arakkonam. Diesel loco sheds are present at Tondiarpet, Golden Rock, Ernakulam and Erode.  Most of the important routes are electrified and only low traffic lines are unelectrified. However, it is common to see diesel locos in electrified lines due to various operational constraints. It is also common to see other zones' locomotives operating inside the zone and vice versa.

Since the zone has little freight traffic compared to other zones and huge passenger traffic (which are run at low fares across the country), the zones' finances are often in a bad shape.

Infrastructure

Assets 

Southern Railway has many factories & sheds:
 Mechanical Workshops
 Carriage, Wagon and Loco Works, Perambur, Chennai
 Central Workshop, Ponmalai, Tiruchirapalli
 Engineering Work Shop, Arakkonam
 Signal & Telecommunication Workshop
 Southern Railway Signal & Telecom Workshop, Podanur, Coimbatore
 Sheds
 Locomotive Sheds
 Diesel
 Diesel Loco Shed, Golden Rock, Tiruchirapalli
 Diesel Loco Shed, Tondiarpet, Chennai
 Diesel Loco Shed, Erode
 Diesel Loco Shed, Ernakulam
 Electrical
 Electrical Loco Shed, Arakkonam
 Electrical Loco Shed, Erode
 Electrical Loco Shed, Royapuram, Chennai
 Steam Loco Shed
 Coonoor, The Nilgiris
 MEMU Car Shed
 MEMU Car Shed, Kollam
 MEMU Car Shed, Palakkad
 EMU Car Shed
 EMU Car Shed, Avadi 
 EMU Car Shed, Tambaram
 EMU Car Shed,Velachery
 BG Coaching Maintenance Depots
 Basin Bridge, Chennai
 Egmore, Chennai
 Madurai
 Salem
 Erode
 Coimbatore
 Mettupalayam
 Shoranur
 Mangalore central
 Thiruvananthapuram
 Ernakulam
 Kollam
 Tirunelveli
 Nagercoil
 Rameswaram
 Thoothukudi
 Tiruchirapalli
 Viluppuram
 Tambaram
 Wagon Maintenance Depots
 Tondiarpet, Chennai
 Egmore, Chennai
 Madurai
 Jolarpettai
 Kochi Harbour
 Arakkonam
 Royapuram, Chennai
 Pattibiram Military Siding
 Erode
 Mangalore junction
 Ernakulam
 Milavittan
 Irumpanam
 Tiruchirapalli
 Viluppuram
 Uthagamandalam
 Printing Presses
 General Printing Press, Royapuram, Chennai
 Ticket Printing Factory, Thiruvananthapuram,
 Ticket Printing Factory, Tiruchirappalli

Rail transport

Surveys

New Lines

Gauge Conversion

Doubling

See also

 Zones and divisions of Indian Railways
 All India Station Masters' Association (AISMA)

References

External links

 Southern Railway official website

Category:1951 establishments in India
Category:Zones of Indian Railways
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