When Railways took up the work of electrification as a matter of policy, an Organisation was created exclusively for electrification of Railways Routes, viz., Central Organisation for Railway Electrification, with its headquarters at Allahabad. Simultaneously, a parallel Organisation was to be created in the DOT for protection/shifting of Telecom Trunk alignments along the Railway tracks, give them clearance for single window transaction, and also agreed to pay the cost of protection/shifting of alignments as per the agreement between DOT and DOR.
South Central Railway was formed on 2nd October, 1966 as the 9th zone of the Indian Railways. In its thirty eight years of committed service and bath breaking progress, South Central Railway has grown to a modern system of mass transportation fulfilling the aspirations of the passengers/customers and carved a niche for itself in Indian Railways system.
In recognition to persistent public demands, a new Railway Zone, with its headquarters at Bilaspur was inaugurated on 20th Sep' 1998. Development of railways in the region served by the present South East Central Railway has passed through many phases over the last about 125 years.
South Western Railway was created by amalgamating the reorganized Hubli division from South Central Railway with Bangalore & Mysore divisions of Southern Railway. This railway has become operational from 1st of April, 2003 with its head quarter at Hubli in the state of Karnataka. The zone encompasses railway routes passing through Karnataka and parts of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa & Maharashtra.
The newly carved West Central Railway Zone with its headquarters at Jabalpur comprises of Jabalpur and Bhopal divisions of erstwhile Central Railway and Kota division of erstwhile Western Railway.
Western Railway in its present form came into existence by the merger of its forerunner, the erstwhile Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI), with other State Railways viz, Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur.
