The Ministry of Railways is a ministry within the Government of India, defined as the apex institution responsible for the country's rail transport. It is the owner and operator of the Indian Railways, which is a state-owned enterprise and a statutory body. The Ministry's headquarters are located at Rail Bhawan in New Delhi.
The origin of the administrative structure dates back to March 1905, when the Railway Board was first established to manage the increasingly complex railway system. After India's independence, the railways were nationalized, and the Ministry became a standalone entity on April 17, 1957, with Jagjivan Ram as its first head, solving the problem of fragmented management under various private companies.
The Ministry works by exercising its authority through the Railway Board, which is headed by a Chairman and CEO. The Board is the executive body that formulates policy, manages finance, and oversees the operation of the 18 zones of Indian Railways. The Board's structure was formally restructured in 2019 (with details defined in 2020) to be function-based, with members responsible for domains like Infrastructure, Operations & Business Development, Finance, and Traction & Rolling Stock. This restructuring also involved merging the eight department-based cadres into the Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS).
A key concept it connects to is the Union Budget, as the separate Railway Budget, which had been introduced in 1924, was merged back with the Union Budget in 2017. This change ended the practice of presenting a distinct financial statement for the railways, integrating its finances with the general government budget.