List of Railway Ministers in India (1945-2024) | Tenure, Political Group, Political Affiliation

Indian railways is one of the biggest railway networks in the world. To take care of such a big network a man with great knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit is required. Today in this article we’ll see the list of Railway ministers in India from 1945 till 2024. They are the one who manages the longest railway network in the world so let’s have a look at them.

 

Also Read:-

Cabinet Ministers of India 2024: Full List, Portfolios, and Responsibilities

List of Railway Ministers in India (1945-2024):-

S.No.	Name	Terms of Office	Political Group	Prime Minister
1	Ashraf Ali	Sep 2, 1946, to Aug 14, 1947	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
2	John Mathai	15 August 1947- 22 September 1948	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
3	N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar	22 September 1948 – 13 May 1952	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
4	Lal Bahadur Shastri	13 May 1952 – 7 December 1956	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
5	Jagjivan Ram	7 December 1956 – 10 April 1962	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
6	Swaran Singh	10 April 1962 – 21 September 1963	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
7	H. C. Dasappa	21 September 1963 – 8 June 1964	Congress	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
8	S. K. Patil	9 June 1964- 12 March 1967	Congress	Lal Bahadur Shastri & Indira Gandhi
9	C. M. Poonacha	13 March 1967 – 14 February 1969	Congress	Indira Gandhi
10	Ram Subhag Singh	14 February 1969 – 4 November 1969	Congress	Indira Gandhi
11	Panampilli Govinda Menon	4 November 1969 – 18 February 1970	Congress	Indira Gandhi
12	Gulzarilal Nanda	18 February 1970 – 17 March 1971	Congress	Indira Gandhi
13	K. Hanumanthaiya	18 March 1971 – 22 July 1972	Congress	Indira Gandhi
14	Lalit Narayan Mishra	5 February 1973 – 2 January 1975	Congress	Indira Gandhi
15	Kamalapati Tripathi	11 February 1975 – 23 March 1977	Congress	Indira Gandhi
16	Madhu Dandavate	26 March 1977 – 28 July 1979	Janata Party	Morarji Desai
17	T. A. Pai	30 July 1979 – 13 January 1980 & 23 July 1972 – 4 February 1973	Janta Party (Secular) & Congress	Ch. Charan Singh & Indira Gandhi
18	Kamalapati Tripathi	14 January 1980 – 12 November 1980	Congress	Indira Gandhi
19	Kedar Pandey	12 November 1980 – 14 January 1982	Congress	Indira Gandhi
20	Prakash Chandra Sethi	15 January 1982 – 2 September 1982	Congress	Indira Gandhi
21	A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury	2 September 1982 – 31 December 1984	Congress	Indira Gandhi & Rajeev Gandhi
22	Bansi Lal	31 December 1984- 4 June 1986	Congress	Rajeev Gandhi
23	Mohsina Kidwai	24 June 1986 – 21 October 1986	Congress	Rajeev Gandhi
24	Madhavrao Scindia	22 October 1986 – 1 December 1989	Congress	Rajeev Gandhi
25	George Fernandez	5 December 1989 – 10 November 1990	Janata Dal	V. P. Singh
26	Janeshwar Mishra	21 November 1990 to 21 June 1991	Samajwadi Janta Party	Chandra Shekhar
27	CK Jaffer Sharief	21 June 1991 to 16 October 1995	Congress	PV Narsimha Rao
28	Ram Vilas Paswan	1 June 1996 to 19 March 1998	Janata Dal	HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral
29	Nitish Kumar	19 March 1998 to 5 August 1999	BJP	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
30	Lalu Prasad Yadav	23 May 2004 to 25 May 2009	BJP	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
31	Mamata Banerjee	13 October 1999 to 15 March 2001 and 26 May 2009 to 19 May 2011	Congress and National Democratic Alliance	Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr. Manmohan Singh
32	Dinesh Trivedi	12 July 2011 to 14 March 2012	Congress	Dr. Manmohan Singh
33	Mukul Roy	20 March 2012 to 21 September 2012	Congress	Dr. Manmohan Singh
34	Pawan Kumar Bansal	28 October 2012 to 10 May 2013	Congress	Dr. Manmohan Singh
35	CP Joshi	22 September 2012 to 28 October 2012 and 11 May 2013 to 16 June 2013	Congress	Dr. Manmohan Singh
36	Suresh Prabhu	10 November 2014 (Incumbent)	BJP	Narendra Modi
37	D.V. Sadananda Gowda	26 May 2014 to 9 November 2014	BJP	Narendra Modi
38	Suresh Prabhu	10 November 2014 (Incumbent)	BJP	Narendra Modi
39	Piyush Goyal	4 September 2017 to 7 July 2021	BJP	Narendra Modi
40	Ashwini Vaishnaw	July 2021 to present	BJP	Narendra Modi

 

 

Also Read:-

List of Finance Ministers of India from 1947 to 2024: Complete Timeline and Political Affiliation

 

How is the Indian Railway Minister Selected?

 To become the Railway Minister of India , one must be eligible to become a member of Parliament. The Railway Minister can become MP from either house be it Rajya sabha or Lok Sabha. If the selected person is not the member of parliament at the time of appointment, he or she should become the member of either house in 6 months or they have to vacate the office if they fail to do so.

 

Also Read:-

Chief Ministers of States and UTs in India 2024: List, Tenure, Salary, and Appointment Process

Some interesting facts about the Indian Railways

1. Purchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central railway station, commonly known as Chennai Central, has the second longest station name in the world.
2. Do you know about the mascot of Indian Railways? The railway’s mascot is a guard elephant named Bholu.
3. On 16 April 1853, the first passenger train ran between Bombay and Thane.
4. Howrah-Amritsar Express route has the maximum number of halts (115 halts).
5. The name of the smallest station is IB (Orissa).
6. The slowest train in India is Mettupalayam-Ooty Nilgiri Passenger which runs at a speed of 10 kmph and the fastest is Vande Bharata Express or Train 18 which runs at a speed of 180 kmph.
7. Indian Railways is the 8th largest employer in the world.
8. Lord Dalhousie is known as the father of Indian Railways.
9. The first Railway Minister of India was John Mathai.
10. Bogibeel Bridge over the Brahmaputra River in Assam is the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India.
11. The longest railway tunnel in India is Pir Panjal, located in the Pir Panjal range of the central Himalayas, Jammu and Kashmir.
12. Indian Railways has 5 royal trains named Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Palace on Wheels, The Golden Chariot, The Maharaja Express and The Deccan Odyssey.
13. Indian Railways has four World Heritage Sites recognized by UNESCO.
14. At Mathura Junction, 7 railway lines originate, which is the maximum number of railway routes originating from a single place.
15. Howrah Junction is the busiest railway station of Indian Railways with the highest number of platforms.