Minister of Railways (India)

India Minister of Railways
Rail Mantrī
Emblem of India
Flag of India
Incumbent Ashwini Vaishnaw since 7 July 2021 (2021-07-07)
Ministry of Railways
Member of	Cabinet of India
Reports to	President of India Prime Minister of India Parliament of India
Appointer	President of India on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of India
Formation	1947 (1947)
First holder	John Matthai (as Minister of Transport)
Deputy	Minister of State for Railways

The Minister of Railways (Hindi:Rail Mantrī) is the head of the Ministry of Railways and a member of the union council of ministers of India. The position of the Minister of Railways is usually held by a minister of cabinet rank and is often assisted by one or two junior Ministers of State.

John Mathai was the first Minister of Railways. Lal Bahadur Shastri who served as the Minister of Railways and Transport from 1952 until 1956 became the second Prime Minister of India in 1964. Four prime ministers, namely Rajiv Gandhi, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (twice) and Manmohan Singh (twice) have briefly held the portfolio of the Minister of Railways during their premiership. Mohsina Kidwai was the first female to hold the charge of the ministry (as Minister of Surface Transport) while Mamata Banerjee is the first female to have served as the Minister of Railways. Madhavrao Scindia and Ram Naik are the only people to have served as Ministers of State for Railways with an Independent charge. Lalit Narayan Mishra is the only cabinet minister to die in office after being assassinated in a bomb blast in 1975, while Suresh Angadi is the only minister of state to die in office.

The current Minister of Railways is Ashwini Vaishnaw of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been in office since 7 July 2021 while V. Somanna and Ravneet Singh are the ministers of state for railways.

History

The ministry of railways was part of the Ministry of Transport after the independence in 1947 and John Mathai served as its first minister from 1947 till 1948. On 22 September 1948, N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar was appointed as the minister of the newly renamed Ministry of Railways and Transport. On 17 April 1957, Jagjivan Ram became the first to head the standalone Minister of Railways.

The Ministry of Railways was merged with the Ministry of Shipping and Transport and the Department of Civil Aviation on 25 September 1985 to form the Ministry of Transport and Bansi Lal, who served as the Railways Minister prior to the merger became the first holder of the new office. However, on 22 October 1986, the Ministry of Railways was again separated into an independent ministry and has been the same since then. C k Jaffer sheriff was the Railway minister from 1991 to 1995 made numerous progress in laying More railway lines he is from Indian national Congress karnataka

Railway Budget

Main article: Railway budget of India

The first railway budget was presented in 1924. Since then, Railway budget was presented as a standalone budget every year before the union budget by the Railway Minister till 2016. The last Railway Budget was presented on 25 February 2016 and on 21 September 2016, Government of India approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017. The railway budget was estimated to be ₹264,600 crore (US$32 billion) for the financial year 2023–24.

Cabinet Ministers

• Key: ^† Assassinated or died in office
• Note: MoS, I/C – Minister of State (Independent Charge)

Indian Railway Ministers

No.	Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Minister of Transport
1			John Mathai (1886–1959)	15 August 1947	22 September 1948	1 year, 38 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru I	Jawaharlal Nehru
Minister of Transport and Railways
2			N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar (1882–1953) MP for Madras (Interim)	22 September 1948	13 May 1952	3 years, 234 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru I	Jawaharlal Nehru
3			Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) Rajya Sabha MP for Uttar Pradesh	13 May 1952	7 December 1956	4 years, 208 days		Nehru II
4			Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) MP for Shahabad South	7 December 1956	17 April 1957	131 days
Minister of Railways
(4)			Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) MP for Sasaram	17 April 1957	10 April 1962	4 years, 358 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru III	Jawaharlal Nehru
5			Swaran Singh (1907–1994) MP for Jullundur	10 April 1962	1 September 1963	1 year, 144 days		Nehru IV
6			H. C. Dasappa (1894–1964) MP for Bangalore	1 September 1963	27 May 1964	282 days
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
7			S. K. Patil (1898–1981) MP for Mumbai South	9 June 1964	11 January 1966	2 years, 277 days		Shastri	Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
				24 January 1966	13 March 1967			Indira I	Indira Gandhi
8			C. M. Poonacha (1910–1990) MP for Mangalore	13 March 1967	14 February 1969	1 year, 338 days		Indira II
9			Ram Subhag Singh (1917–1980) MP for Buxar	14 February 1969	4 November 1969	263 days
10			Panampilly Govinda Menon (1906–1970) MP for Mukundapuram	4 November 1969	18 February 1970	106 days	Indian National Congress (R)
11			Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Kurukshetra	18 February 1970	18 March 1971	1 year, 28 days
12			Kengal Hanumanthaiah (1908–1980) MP for Bangalore City	18 March 1971	22 July 1972	1 year, 126 days		Indira III
13			T. A. Pai (1922–1981) Rajya Sabha MP for Karnataka	22 July 1972	5 February 1973	198 days
14			Lalit Narayan Mishra (1923–1975) MP for Darbhanga	5 February 1973	3 January 1975[†]	1 year, 332 days
15			Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) Rajya Sabha MP for Uttar Pradesh	10 February 1975	23 March 1977	2 years, 41 days
16			Madhu Dandavate (1924–2005) MP for Rajapur	26 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 124 days	Janata Party	Desai	Morarji Desai
(13)			T. A. Pai (1922–1981) MP for Udipi	28 July 1979	14 January 1980	170 days	Janata Party (Secular)	Charan Singh	Charan Singh
(15)			Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) Rajya Sabha MP for Uttar Pradesh	14 January 1980	12 November 1980	303 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV	Indira Gandhi
17			Kedar Pandey (1920–1982) MP for Bettiah	12 November 1980	15 January 1982	1 year, 64 days
18			Prakash Chandra Sethi (1919–1996) MP for Indore	15 January 1982	2 September 1982	230 days
19			A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury (1927–2006) MP for Malda	2 September 1982	31 October 1984	2 years, 59 days
				4 November 1984	31 December 1984	57 days		Rajiv I	Rajiv Gandhi
20			Bansi Lal (1927–2006) MP for Bhiwani	31 December 1984	25 September 1985	268 days		Rajiv II
Minister of Transport
(20)			Bansi Lal (1927–2006) MP for Bhiwani	25 September 1985	4 June 1986	252 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
–			Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP for Amethi (Prime Minister)	4 June 1986	24 June 1986	20 days
21			Mohsina Kidwai (born 1932) MP for Meerut	24 June 1986	22 October 1986	120 days
Minister of Railways
22			Madhavrao Scindia (1945–2001) MP for Gwalior (MoS, I/C)	22 October 1986	2 December 1989	3 years, 41 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
23			George Fernandes (1930–2019) MP for Muzaffarpur	6 December 1989	10 November 1990	339 days	Janata Dal	V. P. Singh	V. P. Singh
24			Janeshwar Mishra (1933–2010) MP for Allahabad	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar	Chandra Shekhar
25			C. K. Jaffer Sharief (1933–2018) MP for Bangalore North	21 June 1991	17 August 1995	4 years, 57 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rao	P. V. Narasimha Rao
–			P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal (Prime Minister)	18 August 1995	16 May 1996	272 days
–			Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow (Prime Minister)	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee I	Self
26			Ram Vilas Paswan (1946–2020) MP for Hajipur	1 June 1996	21 April 1997	1 year, 291 days	Janata Dal	Deve Gowda	H. D. Deve Gowda
				21 April 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral	Inder Kumar Gujral
27			Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MP for Barh	19 March 1998	5 August 1999	1 year, 139 days	Samata Party	Vajpayee II	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
28			Ram Naik (born 1934) MP for Mumbai North (MoS, I/C)	6 August 1999	13 October 1999	161 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
29			Mamata Banerjee (born 1955) MP for Calcutta South	13 October 1999	16 March 2001	1 year, 154 days	All India Trinamool Congress	Vajpayee III
–			Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow (Prime Minister)	16 March 2001	20 March 2001	16 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
(27)			Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MP for Barh	20 March 2001	22 May 2004	3 years, 63 days	Janata Dal (United)
30			Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 1948) MP for Chapra	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Rashtriya Janata Dal	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
(29)			Mamata Banerjee (born 1955) MP for Kolkata Dakshin	23 May 2009	19 May 2011	1 year, 361 days	All India Trinamool Congress	Manmohan II
–			Manmohan Singh (born 1932) Rajya Sabha MP for Assam (Prime Minister)	19 May 2011	12 July 2011	54 days	Indian National Congress
31			Dinesh Trivedi (born 1950) MP for Barrackpore	12 July 2011	19 March 2012	251 days	All India Trinamool Congress
32			Mukul Roy (born 1954) Rajya Sabha MP for West Bengal	20 March 2012	22 September 2012	186 days
33			C. P. Joshi (born 1950) MP for Bhilwara	22 September 2012	28 October 2012	36 days	Indian National Congress
34			Pawan Kumar Bansal (born 1948) MP for Chandigarh	28 October 2012	11 May 2013	195 days
(33)			C. P. Joshi (born 1950) MP for Bhilwara	11 May 2013	15 June 2013	35 days
–			Manmohan Singh (born 1932) Rajya Sabha MP for Assam (Prime Minister)	15 June 2013	17 June 2013	2 days
35			Mallikarjun Kharge (born 1942) MP for Gulbarga	17 June 2013	26 May 2014	343 days
36			D. V. Sadananda Gowda (born 1953) MP for Bangalore North	27 May 2014	9 November 2014	166 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
37			Suresh Prabhu (born 1953) Rajya Sabha MP for Haryana, till 2016 Rajya Sabha MP for Andhra Pradesh, from 2016	9 November 2014	3 September 2017	2 years, 359 days
38			Piyush Goyal (born 1964) Rajya Sabha MP for Maharashtra	3 September 2017	30 May 2019	3 years, 307 days
				31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
39			Ashwini Vaishnaw (born 1970) Rajya Sabha MP for Odisha	7 July 2021	9 June 2024	3 years, 139 days
				10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III

Ministers of State

• Key: ^† Assassinated or died in office

Ministers of State

No.	Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Minister of State for Transport and Railways
1			K. Santhanam (1895–1980) MP for Madras (Constituent Assembly)	1 October 1948	29 May 1952	3 years, 241 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru I	Jawaharlal Nehru
Minister of State for Railways
2			Ram Subhag Singh (1917–1980) MP for Bikramganj	13 May 1964	27 May 1964	2 years, 304 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru IV	Jawaharlal Nehru
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
				9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri	Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
				24 January 1966	13 March 1967			Indira I	Indira Gandhi
3			Parimal Ghosh (1917–1985) MP for Ghatal	13 March 1967	17 October 1969	2 years, 218 days		Indira II
4			Mohammad Shafi Qureshi (1928–2016) MP for Anantnag	10 October 1974	23 March 1977	2 years, 164 days	Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III	Indira Gandhi
5			Surendra Pal Singh (1917–2009) MP for Bulandshahr	23 December 1976	24 March 1977	91 days
6			Sheo Narain (1913–1987) MP for Basti	14 August 1977	28 July 1979	1 year, 348 days	Janata Party	Desai	Morarji Desai
7			C. K. Jaffer Sharief (1933–2018) MP for Bangalore North	14 January 1980	31 October 1984	4 years, 291 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV	Indira Gandhi
8			Madhavrao Scindia (1945–2001) MP for Gwalior	31 December 1984	25 September 1985	268 days		Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
Minister of State for Transport – Department of Railways
(8)			Madhavrao Scindia (1945–2001) MP for Gwalior	25 September 1985	22 October 1986	1 year, 27 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
Minister of State for Railways
9			Bhakta Charan Das (born 1958) MP for Kalahandi	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar	Chandra Shekhar
10			Mallikarjun Goud (1941–2002) MP for Mahabubnagar	21 June 1991	18 January 1993	1 year, 211 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rao	P. V. Narasimha Rao
11			Kahnu Charan Lenka (born 1939) Rajya Sabha MP for Odisha	18 January 1993	2 April 1994	1 year, 74 days
(10)			Mallikarjun Goud (1941–2002) MP for Mahabubnagar	21 August 1995	19 September 1995	29 days
12			Suresh Kalmadi (born 1944) Rajya Sabha MP for Maharashtra	15 September 1995	16 May 1996	244 days
13			Satpal Maharaj (born 1951) MP for Garhwal	6 July 1996	21 April 1997	338 days	All India Indira Congress (Tiwari)	Deve Gowda	H. D. Deve Gowda
				21 April 1997	9 June 1997			Gujral	Inder Kumar Gujral
14			Ram Naik (born 1934) MP for Mumbai North	19 March 1998	6 August 1999	1 year, 140 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee II	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
15			Digvijay Singh (1955–2010) MP for Banka	13 October 1999	22 July 2001	1 year, 282 days	Samata Party	Vajpayee III
16			Bangaru Laxman (1939–2014) Rajya Sabha MP for Gujarat	22 November 1999	31 August 2000	283 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
17			O. Rajagopal (born 1929) Rajya Sabha MP for Madhya Pradesh	31 August 2000	1 July 2002	1 year, 304 days
(15)			Digvijay Singh (1955–2010) MP for Banka	1 August 2001	1 July 2002	334 days	Samata Party
18			A. K. Moorthy (born 1964) MP for Chengalpattu	1 July 2002	15 January 2004	1 year, 198 days	Pattali Makkal Katchi
19			Bandaru Dattatreya (born 1947) MP for Secunderabad	1 July 2002	8 September 2003	1 year, 69 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
20			Basangouda Patil Yatnal (born 1963) MP for Bijapur	8 September 2003	22 May 2004	257 days
21			Naranbhai Rathwa (born 1953) MP for Chhota Udaipur	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
22			R. Velu (born 1940) MP for Arakkonam	23 May 2004	29 March 2009	4 years, 310 days	Pattali Makkal Katchi
23			E. Ahamed (1938–2017) MP for Malappuram	28 May 2009	19 January 2011	1 year, 236 days	Indian Union Muslim League	Manmohan II
24			K. H. Muniyappa (born 1948) MP for Kolar	28 May 2009	28 October 2012	3 years, 153 days	Indian National Congress
25			Bharatsinh Solanki (born 1953) MP for Anand	19 January 2011	28 October 2012	1 year, 283 days
26			Mukul Roy (born 1954) Rajya Sabha MP for West Bengal	19 May 2011	12 July 2011	54 days	All India Trinamool Congress
27			Kotla Jayasurya Prakasha Reddy (born 1951) MP for Kurnool	28 October 2012	26 May 2014	1 year, 210 days	Indian National Congress
28			Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (born 1956) MP for Baharampur
29			Manoj Sinha (born 1959) MP for Ghazipur	27 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 3 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
30			Rajen Gohain (born 1950) MP for Nowgong	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
31			Suresh Angadi (1955–2020) MP for Belgaum	31 May 2019	23 September 2020[†]	1 year, 115 days		Modi II
32			Raosaheb Danve (born 1955) MP for Jalna	7 July 2021	9 June 2024	2 years, 338 days
33			Darshana Jardosh (born 1961) MP for Surat
34			V. Somanna (born 1950) MP for Tumkur	10 June 2024	Incumbent	166 days		Modi III
35			Ravneet Singh Bittu (born 1975) Rajya Sabha MP for Rajasthan

Deputy Ministers

No.	Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Deputy Minister for Transport and Railways
1			B. V. Keskar (1903–1984) MP for Madras (Constituent Assembly)	10 March 1952	13 May 1952	64 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru I	Jawaharlal Nehru
2			O. V. Alagesan (1911–1992) MP for Chengalpattu	12 August 1952	16 April 1957	4 years, 247 days		Nehru II
3			Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	20 September 1956	17 April 1957	209 days
Deputy Minister for Railways
(3)			Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	17 April 1957	10 April 1962	4 years, 358 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru III	Jawaharlal Nehru
4			S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem	2 April 1958		4 years, 8 days
(3)			Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	16 April 1962	27 May 1964	2 years, 41 days		Nehru III
(4)			S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem
(3)			Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	27 May 1964	9 June 1964	13 days		Nanda I	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
(4)			S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem
5			Sham Nath MP for Chandni Chowk	15 June 1964	11 January 1966	2 years, 271 days		Shastri	Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
				24 January 1966	13 March 1967			Indira I	Indira Gandhi
6			S. C. Jamir (born 1931) MP for Nagaland	13 March 1967	14 November 1967	246 days		Indira II
7			Rohanlal Chaturvedi (1919–?) MP for Etah	14 November 1967	18 March 1971	3 years, 124 days
8			Mohammad Yunus Saleem (1912–2004) MP for Nalgonda	27 June 1970	18 March 1971	264 days	Indian National Congress (R)
9			Mohammad Shafi Qureshi (1928–2016) Anantnag	2 May 1971	10 October 1974	3 years, 161 days		Indira III
10			Buta Singh (1934–2021) MP for Ropar	10 October 1974	23 December 1976	2 years, 74 days
Deputy Minister for Railways
11			Mahaveer Prasad (1939–2010) MP for Bansgaon	14 February 1988	4 July 1989	1 year, 140 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
12			Ajay Singh (1950–2020) MP for Agra	23 April 1990	10 November 1990	201 days	Janata Dal	Vishwanath	V. P. Singh
Position not in use since 10 November 1990

External links

• Media related to Ministers of Railways of India at Wikimedia Commons