New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) The Railway Ministry has constituted a six-member committee of senior officials to examine the General Rules and make recommendations for their upgradation, given the technological enhancements and new operational needs.
These rules ensure safe and efficient train operations by setting guidelines for railway departments to work in harmony and discipline.
“Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) have decided to constitute a Committee to examine the existing General Rules of Indian Railways to make recommendations for its revision,” a Ministry’s July 9 order said.
The committee is composed of three Principal Executive Directors from Traffic Transportation (Mechanical), Safety and Civil Engineering (Projects); two Executive Directors from Signal and Electrical Engineering (Rolling Stock)-II and the Dean of Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management.
The six objectives, outlined for the committee for the review exercise, are incorporating important subsidiary rules from zonal railways, adding or deleting rules based on new operational requirements, aligning the rules with newly-introduced technological aids and advancement, removing outdated rules and regulations, ensuring uniformity among the General Rules and various other practices followed by the zones, among others.
“The Committee shall submit its report within 2 months from the date of constitution. The Headquarters of the Committee will be at New Delhi,” the order said.
Railway officials said the current exercise aims at reviewing the General Rules and amending them in tune with the adoption of new technology. Besides, there are many practices followed by various zones and divisions which need to be standardised for operational efficiency and safety, they said.
According to experts, various railway zones frame their own subsidiary rules based on the General Rules, keeping local conditions in consideration. However, sometimes there is a need to bring uniformity among them, they opined.
“For instance, in the Kanchanjunga Express accident that happened on June 17, 2025, the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), which submitted its report to the Railway Board on July 11, 2024, had highlighted different speed restrictions in different railway divisions in case of failure of the automatic signalling system, causing uncertainty and obstacles to safe train operations. The Ministry initiated to bring uniformity among these norms after the CRS’ recommendations,” an expert said. PTI JP AMJ AMJ
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