History of North Western Railway
North Western Railway came being on 1st October, 2002. It was carved out of 2 divisions each from Northern and Western Railways. The formation of this zone along with five other new zones was first approved by Railway Board on 16th September, 1996 and foundation stone for this zone was laid on 17th October 1996 by the then Prime Minister Shri H.D. Deve Gowda at K.P. Singh Stadium, Jaipur. The impetus for formation of New Zone came with the Government of India notification no. 97/E&R/700/1/Notification dated 14.06.2002 wherein it was decided that North Western Railway with its jurisdiction over existing Jaipur and Ajmer divisions of Western Railway and Jodhpur and Bikaner divisions of Northern Railway was to come into effect from 1.10.2002.
Brief Outline of the Divisions
Jaipur Division – This division was formed after merging parts of BB&CI, Jaipur State Railways and Rajputana Malwa Railway, Jaipur Division serves the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Being a predominately passenger earning division (84.92% of its earning is by way of passenger traffic), it deals primarily with cross traffic consisting of fertilizer, cement, oil, salt, food grains, oil seeds, lime stone and gypsum traffic. Container loading is done from here in bulk. The staff strength of this division in all categories is about 12,000.
Bikaner Division – This division was established in 1924 and it serves the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. This division has an equal amount of passenger and goods traffic. The main outward goods traffic of this division is food grains, china clay and gypsum. The staff strength of this division in all categories is about 13,000.
Jodhpur Division – This division was up in the year 1882 and it consists primarily of semi–urban districts of Rajasthan. It covers areas of Jodhpur, Pali Marwar, Nagaur Jalore, Barmer, Jaisalmer. It also covers certain districts of Gujarat state. This division also serves certain sensitive areas of Rajasthan such as Jaisalmer, Barmer and Pokaran. The main commodities loaded on this division are lime stone, salt and gypsum. The staff strength of this division in all categories is about 10,000.
Ajmer Division – This division is spread over the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is predominantly a cement loading division as many cement plants of Rajasthan are located within the jurisdiction of Ajmer. Rock phosphate, soap stone powder are loaded from Udaipur area. This division is prominent on the religious and tourist map of India as it witnesses large amount of passenger traffic to Ajmer Sharief, Pushkar, Jain Temples Dilwara at Mount Abu and Ranakpur Temples. The staff strength of this division in all categories is about 9000.
