Minister of Railways
रेल मंत्री Rail Mantrī
Emblem of the Ministry of Railways
Incumbent Ashwini Vaishnaw since 7 July 2021 (2021-07-07)
Ministry of Railways
Member of	Cabinet of India
Reports to	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

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of India
Union Government Constitution of India Law Human rights Taxation Law enforcement Indian criminal law Indian Penal Code Code of Criminal Procedure
Executive President of India Droupadi Murmu Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi (BJP) Cabinet secretary Union Council of Ministers Government agencies
Legislature Parliament of India Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla (BJP) Deputy Speaker Vacant House Leader Narendra Modi (BJP) Opposition Leader Vacant Members of Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh House Leader Piyush Goyal (BJP) Opposition Leader Vacant Members of Rajya Sabha
Judiciary Supreme Court of India Chief Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud Justices (List) District Courts High Courts Other tribunals
Elections General elections 2009 2014 2019 2024 State elections 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Political parties National coalitions National Democratic Alliance (NDA) United Progressive Alliance (UPA) National parties State parties
Federalism State Government Governors Legislatures (List) High Courts Local government
India portal Other countries
v t e

The Minister of Railways (Hindi: रेल मंत्री, Rail Mantrī) is the head of the Ministry of Railways and a senior 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 has occasionally been held by a minister of state with independent charge. The cabinet ministers are often assisted by one or two junior ministers, or the Ministers of State for Railways.

The current Minister of Railways is Ashwini Vaishnaw of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been in office since 7 July 2021 while Raosaheb Danve and Darshana Jardosh are the ministers of state for railways.

History

The position of the Minister of Railways first came into existence upon independence in 1947 as the Minister of Transport. John Mathai served as the first Minister of Transport from 1947 till 1948. On 22 September 1948, the ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Railways and Transport" and N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar was appointed as the first minister of the renamed ministry. The ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Railways" on 17 April 1957 with Jagjivan Ram becoming the first holder to officially hold the title of the 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 a common ministry responsible for transport and was named the Ministry of Surface Transport. Bansi Lal, who served as the Railways Minister prior to the merger became the first holder of the office of Minister of Surface Transport. However, on 22 October 1986, the Ministry of Railways was separated from the Ministry of Surface Transport and thus became an independent ministry and has been the same since then.

Cabinet Ministers

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

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
Minister of Transport
		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
		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
		Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	13 May 1952	7 December 1956	4 years, 208 days		Nehru II
		Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) MP for Shahabad South	7 December 1956	17 April 1957	131 days
Minister of Railways
		Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) MP for Sasaram	17 April 1957	10 April 1962	4 years, 358 days	Indian National Congress	Nehru III	Jawaharlal Nehru
		Swaran Singh (1907–1994) MP for Jullundur	10 April 1962	1 September 1963	1 year, 144 days		Nehru IV
		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)
		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
		C. M. Poonacha (1910–1990) MP for Mangalore	13 March 1967	14 February 1969	1 year, 338 days
		Ram Subhag Singh (1917–1980) MP for Buxar	14 February 1969	4 November 1969	263 days
		Panampilly Govinda Menon (1906–1970) MP for Mukundapuram	4 November 1969	18 February 1970	106 days
		Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Kurukshetra	18 February 1970	18 March 1971	1 year, 28 days
		Kengal Hanumanthaiah (1908–1980) MP for Bangalore City	18 March 1971	22 July 1972	1 year, 126 days		Indira II
		T. A. Pai (1922–1981) MP for Karnataka (Rajya Sabha)	22 July 1972	5 February 1973	198 days
		Lalit Narayan Mishra (1923–1975) MP for Darbhanga	5 February 1973	3 January 1975[†]	1 year, 332 days
		Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	10 February 1975	23 March 1977	2 years, 41 days
		Madhu Dandavate (1924–2005) MP for Rajapur	26 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 124 days	Janata Party	Desai	Morarji Desai
		T. A. Pai (1922–1981) MP for Udipi	28 July 1979	14 January 1980	170 days	Janata Party (Secular)	Charan Singh	Charan Singh
		Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	14 January 1980	12 November 1980	303 days	Indian National Congress	Indira III	Indira Gandhi
		Kedar Pandey (1920–1982) MP for Bettiah	12 November 1980	15 January 1982	1 year, 64 days
		Prakash Chandra Sethi (1919–1996) MP for Indore	15 January 1982	2 September 1982	230 days
		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
		Bansi Lal (1927–2006) MP for Bhiwani	31 December 1984	25 September 1985	268 days		Rajiv II
Merged with Ministry of Shipping and Transport to form Ministry of Surface Transport.
Minister of Transport
		Bansi Lal (1927–2006) MP for Bhiwani	25 September 1985	4 June 1986	252 days	Indian National Congress	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
		Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP for Amethi (Prime Minister)	4 June 1986	24 June 1986	20 days
		Mohsina Kidwai (born 1932) MP for Meerut	24 June 1986	22 October 1986	120 days
Bifurcated into the Ministry of Surface Transport, the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Minister of Railways
		Madhavrao Scindia (1945–2001) MP for Gwalior (MoS, I/C)	22 October 1986	2 December 1989	3 years, 41 days	Indian National Congress	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
		George Fernandes (1930–2019) MP for Muzaffarpur	6 December 1989	10 November 1990	339 days	Janata Dal	V. P. Singh	V. P. Singh
		Janeshwar Mishra (1933–2010) MP for Allahabad	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar	Chandra Shekhar
		C. K. Jaffer Sharief (1933–2018) MP for Bangalore North	21 June 1991	17 August 1995	4 years, 57 days	Indian National Congress	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
		Ram Vilas Paswan (1946–2020) MP for Hajipur	1 June 1996	21 April 1997	324 days	Janata Dal	Deve Gowda	H. D. Deve Gowda
			21 April 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral	Inder Kumar Gujral
		Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MP for Barh	19 March 1998	5 August 1999	1 year, 139 days	Samata Party	Vajpayee II	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		Ram Naik (born 1934) MP for Mumbai North (MoS, I/C)	6 August 1999	13 October 1999	161 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
		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
		Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MP for Barh	20 March 2001	22 May 2004	3 years, 63 days	Janata Dal (United)
		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
		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) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha) (Prime Minister)	19 May 2011	12 July 2011	54 days	Indian National Congress
		Dinesh Trivedi (born 1950) MP for Barrackpore	12 July 2011	19 March 2012	251 days	All India Trinamool Congress
		Mukul Roy (born 1954) MP for West Bengal (Rajya Sabha)	20 March 2012	22 September 2012	186 days
		C. P. Joshi (born 1950) MP for Bhilwara	22 September 2012	28 October 2012	36 days	Indian National Congress
		Pawan Kumar Bansal (born 1948) MP for Chandigarh	28 October 2012	11 May 2013	195 days
		C. P. Joshi (born 1950) MP for Bhilwara	11 May 2013	15 June 2013	35 days
		Manmohan Singh (born 1932) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha) (Prime Minister)	15 June 2013	17 June 2013	2 days
		Mallikarjun Kharge (born 1942) MP for Gulbarga	17 June 2013	26 May 2014	343 days
		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
		Suresh Prabhu (born 1953) MP for Haryana (Rajya Sabha), till 2016 MP for Andhra Pradesh (Rajya Sabha), from 2016)	9 November 2014	3 September 2017	2 years, 359 days
		Piyush Goyal (born 1964) MP for Maharashtra (Rajya Sabha)	3 September 2017	30 May 2019	5 years, 2 days
			31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
		Ashwini Vaishnaw (born 1970) MP for Odisha (Rajya Sabha)	7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 95 days

Ministers of State

• Key: ^† Assassinated or died in office

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
Minister of State for Transport and Railways
		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
		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
		Parimal Ghosh (1917–1985) MP for Ghatal	13 March 1967	17 October 1969	2 years, 218 days
		Mohammad Shafi Qureshi (1928–2016) MP for Anantnag	10 October 1974	23 March 1977	2 years, 164 days	Indian National Congress	Indira II	Indira Gandhi
		Surendra Pal Singh (1917–2009) MP for Bulandshahr	23 December 1976	24 March 1977	91 days
		Sheo Narain (1913–1987) MP for Basti	14 August 1977	28 July 1979	1 year, 348 days	Janata Party	Desai	Morarji Desai
		C. K. Jaffer Sharief (1933–2018) MP for Bangalore North	14 January 1980	31 October 1984	4 years, 291 days	Indian National Congress	Indira III	Indira Gandhi
		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
		Madhavrao Scindia (1945–2001) MP for Gwalior	25 September 1985	22 October 1986	1 year, 27 days	Indian National Congress	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
Bifurcated into the Ministry of Surface Transport, the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Minister of State for Railways
		Bhakta Charan Das (born 1958) MP for Kalahandi	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar	Chandra Shekhar
		Mallikarjun Goud (1941–2002) MP for Mahabubnagar	21 June 1991	18 January 1993	1 year, 211 days	Indian National Congress	Rao	P. V. Narasimha Rao
		Kahnu Charan Lenka (born 1939) MP for Odisha (Rajya Sabha)	18 January 1993	2 April 1994	1 year, 74 days
		Mallikarjun Goud (1941–2002) MP for Mahabubnagar	21 August 1995	19 September 1995	29 days
		Suresh Kalmadi (born 1944) MP for Maharashtra (Rajya Sabha)	15 September 1995	16 May 1996	244 days
		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
		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
		Digvijay Singh (1955–2010) MP for Banka	13 October 1999	22 July 2001	1 year, 282 days	Samata Party	Vajpayee III
		Bangaru Laxman (1939–2014) MP for Gujarat (Rajya Sabha)	22 November 1999	31 August 2000	283 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
		O. Rajagopal (born 1929) MP for Madhya Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	31 August 2000	1 July 2002	1 year, 304 days
		Digvijay Singh (1955–2010) MP for Banka	1 August 2001	1 July 2002	334 days	Samata Party
		A. K. Moorthy (born 1964) MP for Chengalpattu	1 July 2002	15 January 2004	1 year, 198 days	Pattali Makkal Katchi
		Bandaru Dattatreya (born 1947) MP for Secunderabad	1 July 2002	8 September 2003	1 year, 69 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
		Basangouda Patil Yatnal (born 1963) MP for Bijapur	8 September 2003	22 May 2004	257 days
		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
		R. Velu (born 1940) MP for Arakkonam	23 May 2004	29 March 2009	4 years, 310 days	Pattali Makkal Katchi
		E. Ahamed (1938–2017) MP for Malappuram	28 May 2009	19 January 2011	1 year, 236 days	Indian Union Muslim League	Manmohan II
		K. H. Muniyappa (born 1948) MP for Kolar	28 May 2009	28 October 2012	3 years, 153 days	Indian National Congress
		Bharatsinh Solanki (born 1953) MP for Anand	19 January 2011	28 October 2012	1 year, 283 days
		Mukul Roy (born 1954) MP for West Bengal (Rajya Sabha)	19 May 2011	12 July 2011	54 days	All India Trinamool Congress
		Kotla Jayasurya Prakasha Reddy (born 1951) MP for Kurnool	28 October 2012	26 May 2014	1 year, 210 days	Indian National Congress
		Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (born 1956) MP for Baharampur
		Manoj Sinha (born 1959) MP for Ghazipur	27 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 3 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
		Rajen Gohain (born 1950) MP for Nowgong	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
		Suresh Angadi (1955–2020) MP for Belgaum	31 May 2019	23 September 2020[†]	1 year, 115 days		Modi II
		Raosaheb Danve (born 1955) MP for Jalna	7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 95 days
		Darshana Jardosh (born 1961) MP for Surat

Deputy Ministers

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
Deputy Minister for Transport and Railways
		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
		O. V. Alagesan (1911–1992) MP for Chengalpattu	12 August 1952	16 April 1957	4 years, 247 days		Nehru II
		Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	20 September 1956	17 April 1957	209 days
Deputy Minister for Railways
		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
		S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem	2 April 1958		4 years, 8 days
		Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	16 April 1962	27 May 1964	2 years, 41 days		Nehru III
		S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem
		Shah Nawaz Khan (1914–1993) MP for Meerut	27 May 1964	9 June 1964	13 days		Nanda I	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
		S. V. Ramaswamy MP for Salem
		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
		S. C. Jamir (born 1931) MP for Nagaland	13 March 1967	14 November 1967	246 days
		Rohanlal Chaturvedi (1919–?) MP for Etah	14 November 1967	18 March 1971	3 years, 124 days
		Mohammad Yunus Saleem (1912–2004) MP for Nalgonda	27 June 1970	18 March 1971	264 days
		Mohammad Shafi Qureshi (1928–2016) Anantnag	2 May 1971	10 October 1974	3 years, 161 days		Indira II
		Buta Singh (1934–2021) MP for Ropar	10 October 1974	23 December 1976	2 years, 74 days
Deputy Minister for Railways
		Mahaveer Prasad (1939–2010) MP for Bansgaon	14 February 1988	4 July 1989	1 year, 140 days	Indian National Congress	Rajiv II	Rajiv Gandhi
		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

Trivia

• John Matthai was the first minister of transport while the first minister of Railways was Jagjivan Ram.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri who served as the Minister of Railways and Transport from 1952 until 1956 became the 2nd Prime Minister of India in 1964.
• Four prime ministers, namely Rajiv Gandhi, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (twice) and Manmohan Singh (twice) had 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 Minister of Railways.
• Madhavrao Scindia and Ram Naik served as Ministers of State (Independent charge) for Railways, while the rest have held cabinet minister rank.
• Madhavrao Scindia, C. K. Jaffer Sharief and Mukul Roy had served as ministers of state in the Ministry of Railways before heading the ministry in cabinet ministerial capacity.
• Lalit Narayan Mishra is the sole 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 and also the only Indian minister to die due to COVID-19 complications.
• Under the coalition governments between 1999 and 2012, the portfolio of the Minister of Railways had been held by leaders of coalition parties rather than members of the ruling party. These includes Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy.