Minister of Railways (India)

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Minister of Railways
रेलमंत्री
Incumbent
Suresh Prabhu

since 10 Nov 2014
Ministry of Railways
Member of Cabinet of India
Appointer President
on the advice of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holder John Mathai
Formation 15 August 1947

The Minister of Railways is the head of the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India. The railway minister is usually accorded a cabinet rank, and is responsible for Indian Railways, the largest employer in the world. An important responsibility of the railway minister is to present in Parliament the Railway Budget, the Annual Financial Statement of Indian Railways. Suresh Prabhu of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the current Minister of Railways, serving since 10 Nov 2014.

List of railway ministers

John Mathai, the first railway minister of independent India
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar served two terms as railway minister under Prime Minister Vajpayee, as a member for two different parties—Samata Party and Janata Dal (United).
First woman Railway Minister of India.Among the few woman railway ministers, Mamata Banerjee's two stints in Rail Bhavan came as a member of opposing ruling alliances.
Name Term of office Political party
(Alliance)
Prime Minister
Asaf Ali 2 September 1946 14 August 1947 Indian National Congress None
(Interim govt)
John Mathai 15 August 1947 22 September 1948 Jawaharlal Nehru
N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar 22 September 1948 13 May 1952
Lal Bahadur Shastri 13 May 1952 7 December 1956
Jagjivan Ram 7 December 1956 10 April 1962
Swaran Singh 10 April 1962 21 September 1963
H. C. Dasappa 21 September 1963 8 June 1964
S. K. Patil 9 June 1964 12 March 1967 Lal Bahadur Shastri
Indira Gandhi
C. M. Poonacha 13 March 1967 14 February 1969 Indira Gandhi
Ram Subhag Singh 14 February 1969 4 November 1969
Panampilli Govinda Menon 4 November 1969 18 February 1970
Gulzarilal Nanda 18 February 1970 17 March 1971
K. Hanumanthaiya 18 March 1971 22 July 1972
T. A. Pai 23 July 1972 4 February 1973
Lalit Narayan Mishra 5 February 1973 2 January 1975
Kamalapati Tripathi 11 February 1975 23 March 1977
Madhu Dandavate 26 March 1977 28 July 1979 Janata Party Morarji Desai
T. A. Pai 30 July 1979 13 January 1980 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Singh
Kamalapati Tripathi 14 January 1980 12 November 1980 Indian National Congress Indira Gandhi
Kedar Pandey 12 November 1980 14 January 1982
Prakash Chandra Sethi 15 January 1982 2 September 1982
A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury 2 September 1982 31 December 1984 Indira Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Bansi Lal 31 December 1984 4 June 1986 Rajiv Gandhi
Mohsina Kidwai 24 June 1986 21 October 1986
Madhavrao Scindia 22 October 1986 1 December 1989
George Fernandes 5 December 1989 10 November 1990 Janata Dal V. P. Singh
Janeshwar Mishra 21 November 1990 21 June 1991 Samajwadi Janata Party Chandra Shekhar
C. K. Jaffer Sharief 21 June 1991 16 October 1995 Indian National Congress P. V. Narasimha Rao
Ram Vilas Paswan 1 June 1996 19 March 1998 Janata Dal
(United Front)
H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
Nitish Kumar 19 March 1998 5 August 1999 Samata Party
(NDA)
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Ram Naik 6 August 1999 12 October 1999 Bharatiya Janata Party
(NDA)
Mamata Banerjee 13 October 1999 15 March 2001 All India Trinamool Congress
(NDA)
Nitish Kumar 20 March 2001 22 May 2004 Janata Dal (United)
(NDA)
Lalu Prasad Yadav 23 May 2004 25 May 2009 Rashtriya Janata Dal
(UPA)
Manmohan Singh
Mamata Banerjee 26 May 2009 19 May 2011 All India Trinamool Congress
(UPA)
Dinesh Trivedi 12 July 2011 14 March 2012
Mukul Roy 20 March 2012 21 September 2012
C. P. Joshi 22 September 2012 28 October 2012 Indian National Congress
(UPA)
Pawan Kumar Bansal 28 October 2012 10 May 2013
C. P. Joshi 11 May 2013 16 June 2013
Mallikarjun Kharge 17 June 2013 25 May 2014
D. V. Sadananda Gowda 26 May 2014 9 Nov 2014 Bharatiya Janata Party
(NDA)
Narendra Modi
Suresh Prabhu 10 Nov 2014 Incumbent
If the office of Minister of Railways is vacant for any length of time, it automatically comes under the charge of the prime minister.

References