Indian Railway was introduced in 1853 when a line was constructed from Bombay to Thane covering a distance of 34 km. Indian Railways is the largest government undertaking in the country. The length of the Indian Railways network was 67,956 km (Railway yearbook 2019-20). It's very large size puts a lot of pressure on a centralised railway management system. Thus, in India, the railway system has been divided into 16 zones.

On the basis of the width of the track of the Indian Railways, how many categories have been made?

3

On the basis of the width of track of the Indian Railways, three categories have been made:

Broad gauge: The distance between rails in broad gauge is 1.676 metre. The total length of broad gauge lines was 63950 km (2019-20).

Metre gauge: The distance between rails is one metre. Its total length was 2402 km (2019-20).

Narrow gauge: The distance between the rails in this case is 0.762 metre or 0.610 metre. The total length of narrow guage was 1604 km (2019-20). It is generally confined to hilly areas.