Indian Railways is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India that operates India's national railway. In 1951, the Indian Railways was established by the amalgamation of 42 different railway companies operating in the country, spanning a total of 55,000 km. Since 2000, metro stations have continued to pop up in Indiaâs major cities, including Delhi(2002), Bangalore (2011), Gurgaon (2013) and Mumbai (2014). The noughties also saw thecreation of the networkâs East Coast, South Western, South East Central, North Central and WestCentral Railway zones, in 2002. . As of 2023, it manages the fourth largest national railway system by size with a track length of 132,310 km (82,210 mi), running track length of 106,493 km (66,172 mi) and route length of 68,584 km (42,616 mi) of which 63,971 km (39,750 mi) is electrified. With more than 1.2 million employees, it is the world's ninth-largest employer and India's second largest employer. Nevertheless, arguably the greatest step forward for IR was thelaunch of online train reservations and ticketing through its IRCTC system in 2002. Passengerscould now book their journeys online or buy tickets from thousands of agents across the countryâ a necessary addition, considering that passengers had reportedly traversed a distance of morethan 4.5 billion kilometres on the railways in the period from 2000-2001
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