Indian Railways Zones Static GK: All 18 Zones, Headquarters and 70 Divisions List

Introduction

Indian Railways is the fourth largest railway network in the world and the largest run under a single management. To administer a network of this size, the Ministry of Railways divides it vertically into zones, and each zone is further divided into divisions. As on 1 June 2026, Indian Railways has 18 zonal railways and 70 divisions, following the creation of the South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam and the new Rayagada division under East Coast Railway.

Indian Railways Zones Static GK is one of the highest-yielding General Awareness topics in competitive exams. Questions on zonal headquarters, the oldest and newest zones, and the number of divisions appear almost every year in RRB NTPC, RRB Group D, RRB ALP, SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, Insurance and State PCS papers. Because the facts are fixed and easy to memorise, this chapter can fetch guaranteed marks with very little revision time. You can pair this chapter with other high-return chapters in our Static GK notes for competitive exams.

The list below is fully updated for the 2026 restructuring, in which South Central Railway was reduced from six divisions to three, the Waltair division was renamed Visakhapatnam division, and Rayagada became the 70th division of Indian Railways. Many older books and PDFs still show 17 zones and 68 divisions, so read the updated table carefully.

Core Concept: Zone, Division and the Administrative Chain

Indian Railways works as a matrix organisation. Geographically it is split into zones; functionally it is split into departments such as traffic, engineering, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecommunication, stores, personnel, accounts, security and safety.

• Ministry of Railways is the apex ministry, headed by the Union Minister of Railways.
• Railway Board is the highest executive body. The Chairman of the Railway Board, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, reports to the Ministry of Railways. The Board was reduced from eight members to five in December 2019.
• Zone is the largest field unit, headed by a General Manager (GM), who reports to the Railway Board.
• Division is the basic operating unit, headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), who reports to the General Manager of the zone.
• Station level work is handled by station masters and area officers under the division.

Three points are frequently tested and frequently misunderstood:

• Zonal and divisional boundaries are decided by operational and administrative need, not by state boundaries. That is why a single state can fall under several zones, and a single zone can spread across several states.
• Metro Railway, Kolkata is a full zone but has no divisions. It is the only zone that runs purely urban rapid transit services.
• Konkan Railway is not a zone. It is run by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL), a public sector undertaking jointly owned by the Ministry of Railways and the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. Some coaching material counts it as a nineteenth zone, which is why you see both 18 and 19 in different books.

Complete List of Indian Railways Zones, Headquarters and Divisions

Zone-wise Master Table (Updated as on 1 June 2026)

Konkan Railway: The Corporation That Is Not a Zone

Zone Count and Division Count: The Numbers to Write in the Exam

States and Union Territories Covered by Each Zone

Memory Tricks and Mnemonics

Trick 1: Mumbai is Central to the West

Mumbai has exactly two zonal headquarters, and the trick fixes both the zones and the exact buildings.

• "Central Shivaji, Western Churchgate"
• Central Railway - Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.
• Western Railway - Churchgate.

Trick 2: Kolkata Eats South by Metro

Kolkata is the only city with three zonal headquarters. Read the first letters of the phrase as E, S, M.

• "Kolkata Eats South by Metro" - Eastern Railway (Fairlie Place), South Eastern Railway (Garden Reach), Metro Railway.

Trick 3: The 1-2 Rule for the Six Founding Zones

The first six zones were created in just two years, and the year splits them neatly.

• 1951: Southern (April), Central and Western (November). Remember "SCW came first".
• 1952: Northern, Eastern and North Eastern, all on 14 April. Remember "NEN came next".
• Then the two singles: South Eastern in 1955 and Northeast Frontier in 1958.

Trick 4: The 2002-2003 New Zone Batch

Seven zones were created in this short window, and this is where most students lose marks.

• 1 October 2002 (only two): "Hajipur and Jaipur are Pur-pur pair" - East Central Railway (Hajipur) and North Western Railway (Jaipur).
• 1 April 2003 (five zones): "BP-JHB" - Bhubaneswar (East Coast), Prayagraj (North Central), Jabalpur (West Central), Hubballi (South Western), Bilaspur (South East Central).

Trick 5: The Headquarters That Do Not Match the Zone Name

Examiners love zones whose headquarters city sounds unrelated to the zone name. Learn these six as one block.

• North Eastern Railway - Gorakhpur, not Guwahati.
• Northeast Frontier Railway - Maligaon, Guwahati, not Katihar.
• East Central Railway - Hajipur, not Patna.
• South East Central Railway - Bilaspur, not Raipur.
• South Western Railway - Hubballi, not Bengaluru.
• West Central Railway - Jabalpur, not Bhopal.

Trick 6: The Four "South" Zones Ladder

Four zone names begin with South, and this ladder keeps them separate.

• "South = Chennai, South Central = Secunderabad, South Coast = Visakhapatnam, South Eastern = Kolkata, South East Central = Bilaspur, South Western = Hubballi"
• Contrast tip: SCR vs SCoR - one extra small "o" means the new coastal zone at Visakhapatnam.
• Contrast tip: SER vs SECR - adding "C" moves you inland from Kolkata to Bilaspur.

Trick 7: The Six-Sixers

Only three zones have six divisions each. Remember them as the six-sixers.

• "North, South and West hit sixes" - Northern Railway, Southern Railway and Western Railway have 6 divisions each.
• Five divisions: East Central and Northeast Frontier. Four divisions: Eastern, South Eastern, North Western and South Coast.

Trick 8: The 2026 Story Trick for the Newest Zone

Build one sentence and you get five facts at once.

• "In 2026, Vizag took three from Secunderabad and half of Waltair, and Rayagada was born."
• Vizag = South Coast Railway headquarters. Three from Secunderabad = Guntakal, Guntur, Vijayawada. Half of Waltair = renamed Visakhapatnam division. Rayagada = 70th division under East Coast Railway.

Additional Notes

Frequently Confused Facts

• 18 zones or 19 zones: The correct official figure is 18 zonal railways. The figure 19 appears when Konkan Railway is wrongly counted as a zone.
• Central Railway vs Western Railway headquarters: Central Railway is at CSMT, Western Railway is at Churchgate. Many notes wrongly print Western Railway as CSMT.
• Northeast Frontier Railway vs North Eastern Railway: NFR is at Maligaon, Guwahati and serves the North East; NER is at Gorakhpur and serves eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Katihar is only a division of NFR.
• East Coast Railway vs East Central Railway: ECoR is at Bhubaneswar in Odisha; ECR is at Hajipur in Bihar.
• Division vs production unit: Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Diesel Locomotive Works Varanasi and Rail Wheel Factory Yelahanka are production units, not divisions. Older lists wrongly show them inside zone division lists.
• Old names still printed in books: Allahabad is now Prayagraj, Mughalsarai is Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction, Waltair is Visakhapatnam, Palghat is Palakkad, Trichy is Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum is Thiruvananthapuram, Hubli is Hubballi, Bangalore is Bengaluru and Mysore is Mysuru.
• Oldest zone vs first metro zone: Southern Railway is the oldest zone (1951); Metro Railway Kolkata is the first and only metro zone (2010).
• GM vs DRM: A General Manager heads a zone; a Divisional Railway Manager heads a division and reports to the General Manager.

Repeating PYQ Patterns

• RRB NTPC, RRB Group D and RRB ALP: Direct one-line questions on zonal headquarters, the newest zone, the number of zones and divisions, and which city has three zonal headquarters. Expect at least one question in most shifts.
• SSC CGL, CHSL and MTS: Usually asked as a match-the-following of zone and headquarters, or as a single fact such as the world's longest platform or the oldest zone.
• IBPS PO, Clerk, RRB and Insurance exams: Asked in current affairs form, for example the creation of South Coast Railway, the Jammu division or the Rayagada division, so keep this chapter linked with your monthly revision from our daily current affairs notes.
• UPSC Prelims and State PCS: Rarely a direct question, but the zone-division structure appears in questions on public administration, the Railway Board and freight corridors.
• The most repeated single facts are Southern Railway as the oldest zone, Northern Railway as the largest zone, Gorakhpur for the longest platform, Hajipur for East Central Railway and Visakhapatnam for South Coast Railway. Test yourself on these with our Static GK quizzes and then look for the relevant vacancies on our latest government job notifications page.

Quick Insight

The 2026 reorganisation is a rare event in Indian Railways history because a zone actually became smaller: South Central Railway went from six divisions to three so that a full coastal zone could be created for Andhra Pradesh, a commitment made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. At the same time, the Jammu division in 2025 gave the Kashmir valley its own administrative control after the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link was completed. Both changes show the same principle at work: as traffic, freight and strategic importance grow in a region, Indian Railways splits the map to bring decision making closer to the ground. Since examiners pick their static questions from exactly these fresh developments, it pays to revise this chapter alongside your daily reading and to attempt questions on it in our daily current affairs quizzes.

One-Liners for Quick Revision

• Total zonal railways in India - 18 - as on 1 June 2026, including Metro Railway, Kolkata.
• Total divisions in Indian Railways - 70 - each headed by a Divisional Railway Manager.
• Zonal reorganisation began - 14 April 1951 - starting with six zones formed by 1952.
• Southern Railway - Chennai, 14 April 1951 - oldest zone, 6 divisions: Chennai, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram.
• Central Railway - CSMT Mumbai, 5 November 1951 - 5 divisions: Mumbai CSMT, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Pune, Solapur.
• Western Railway - Churchgate Mumbai, 5 November 1951 - 6 divisions: Mumbai Central, Vadodara, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar.
• Northern Railway - Baroda House, New Delhi, 14 April 1952 - largest zone by route km, 6 divisions: Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur, Jammu, Lucknow, Moradabad.
• Eastern Railway - Fairlie Place, Kolkata, 14 April 1952 - 4 divisions: Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Malda.
• North Eastern Railway - Gorakhpur, 14 April 1952 - 3 divisions: Izzatnagar, Lucknow, Varanasi.
• South Eastern Railway - Garden Reach, Kolkata, 1955 - 4 divisions: Adra, Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi.
• Northeast Frontier Railway - Maligaon, Guwahati, 15 January 1958 - 5 divisions: Katihar, Alipurduar, Rangiya, Lumding, Tinsukia.
• South Central Railway - Secunderabad, 2 October 1966 - reduced to 3 divisions from 1 June 2026: Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Nanded.
• East Central Railway - Hajipur, 1 October 2002 - 5 divisions: Danapur, Dhanbad, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Samastipur, Sonpur.
• North Western Railway - Jaipur, 1 October 2002 - 4 divisions: Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur.
• East Coast Railway - Bhubaneswar, 1 April 2003 - 3 divisions: Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Rayagada.
• North Central Railway - Prayagraj, 1 April 2003 - 3 divisions: Prayagraj, Agra, Jhansi.
• South East Central Railway - Bilaspur, 1 April 2003 - 3 divisions: Bilaspur, Nagpur, Raipur.
• South Western Railway - Hubballi, 1 April 2003 - 3 divisions: Hubballi, Bengaluru, Mysuru.
• West Central Railway - Jabalpur, 1 April 2003 - 3 divisions: Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota.
• Metro Railway, Kolkata - Kolkata, 29 December 2010 - only metro zone and the only zone with no divisions.
• South Coast Railway - Visakhapatnam, operational 1 June 2026 - newest zone, 4 divisions: Guntakal, Guntur, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam.
• South Coast Railway route length - about 3,532 km - with roughly 385 stations and Sandeep Mathur as first General Manager.
• Konkan Railway - CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai - a public sector undertaking, not a zone, running about 741 km from Roha to Thokur with two regions.
• Konkan Railway commissioned - 26 January 1998 - jointly owned by the Ministry of Railways with Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala.
• 69th division of Indian Railways - Jammu, Northern Railway - inaugurated 6 January 2025, 742.1 km, carved from Firozpur division.
• 70th division of Indian Railways - Rayagada, East Coast Railway - operational 1 June 2026, carved from the former Waltair division.
• Waltair division - renamed Visakhapatnam division - transferred from East Coast Railway to South Coast Railway.
• City with three zonal headquarters - Kolkata - Eastern, South Eastern and Metro Railway.
• City with two zonal headquarters - Mumbai - Central Railway at CSMT and Western Railway at Churchgate.
• World's longest railway platform - Gorakhpur, about 1,366 m - under North Eastern Railway.
• First passenger train in India - 16 April 1853 - Bombay to Thane, a distance of 34 km.
• Kolkata Metro - first metro in India - commercial services began 24 October 1984, made a zone in 2010.
• Head of a zone - General Manager - reports directly to the Railway Board.
• Head of a division - Divisional Railway Manager - reports to the General Manager of the zone.
• Apex executive body - Railway Board - headed by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer under the Ministry of Railways.
• Legal basis of South Coast Railway - Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 - announced in February 2019 and notified in May 2026.
• Basis of zonal boundaries - operational and administrative need, not state boundaries - so one state can fall under several zones.
• Zones with the most divisions - Northern, Southern and Western Railway - six divisions each.
• Production units often mistaken for divisions - Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Diesel Locomotive Works Varanasi, Rail Wheel Factory Yelahanka.

Revise this chapter once a week and attempt a timed set of questions to lock the headquarters into memory. Start with our Static GK practice quizzes, then move on to banking-oriented General Awareness with our banking awareness notes. Once you are confident, check the newest openings on our government jobs notifications page and keep your daily reading going with our current affairs section.