East Central Railway with its Headquarters at Hajipur in Bihar is one of these six new zones. East Central Railway was inaugurated on 08.09.96 and an Officer on Special Duty of the rank of General Manager was posted.
The setting up of the organization was one of the most important steps in the execution of this project. With his years of experience on the Indian Railways, Mr.Sreedharan conceived an organizational set-up designed to deliver the goods. The entire project length of 760 Km. was divided in seven sectors, each approximately 100 Km. long, headed by a Chief Engineer. The sectors were Mahad, Ratnagiri (north), Ratnagiri (south), Kudal, Panaji, Karwar and Udupi.
N. F. Railway is the smallest of the 9 zones on the Indian Railways, but has the unique distinction of serving as many as ten States of the Indian Union, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram. Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal. Besides, it also serves as a rail-head for the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan and provides interchange facilities with Bangladesh Railway.
The Government of India, Ministry of Railways, have set up the Rail Wheel Factory to make wheels, axles and wheelsets for Indian Railways as a measure of import substitution.