SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY GENERAL RULES FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS WITH SUBSIDIARY RULES AND SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY 2020 (Including and upto AS 21) FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (RAILWAY BOARD) No. 69-RR/4 DATED THE 11TH FEBRUARY 1976 RESOLUTION General Rules for Indian Railways (Open Lines) 1976 administered by the Government and for the time being used for the public carriage of passengers, animals or goods.

The considerable advance made in recent years in methods of signalling and interlocking, modes of traction and introduction of new types of equipment necessitated a revision of the General Rules, which had been revised last in 1929, for working Open Lines of Railways in India. The revision of these rules was also advocated by the Railway Accidents Committee, 1962 and the Railway Accidents Inquiry Committee 1968, who desired that the revision of the Rules should be consistent not only with the conditions obtaining at present but likely to obtain in the foreseeable future, and emphasized the need for keeping the basic complexion of rules intact while at the same time providing for technological changes in recent years.

2. For this purpose, a Committee composed of officers selected from the Traffic and Signal Departments was appointed by the Railway Board in 1968. The Committee submitted a set of draft rules for consideration by the Board in February, 1970. The Commission of Railway Safety, whose comments were also invited did not favour the adoption of these draft rules which had proposed the abolition of certain existing fundamental concepts such as classification of Stations, minimum equipment of signals for each class of Station etc., in the Annual Report for 1971-72, the Commission stated that a wholesale revision and rearrangement of the rules, which formed the basis of train working and safety of operations for over hundred years and which were ingrained in the minds of thousands of Railway staff would not be desirable. Accordingly, the commission conveyed to the Railway Board its inability to agree to the adoption of the new General Rules as drafted.

3. In consideration of the strong views expressed by the Commission of Railway Safety and the positive recommendations of the Railway Accidents Committee, 1962 and the Railway Accidents Inquiry Committee, 1968, Member Traffic, Railway Board, decided in September, 1972 that the revision of the existing General Rules should be so undertaken as to be in consonance with these views and to cover such aspects only of the existing rules as require modification in the light of the technological changes or where certain existing rules have outlived their use. A fresh revision of the General Rules was accordingly taken by the Safety Directorate in consultation with other Directorates of the Railway Board.

4. A provisional issue of the revised General Rules was circulated to Railway Administrations, the Research, Designs and Standards Organisation, the Commission of Railway Safety, Railway Staff College, Vadodara, Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad, Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering, Pune, Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jamalpur; etc., for criticism and suggestions under Government of India, Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) letter No.68-RR/2 Vol.V, dated 25.07.1974.

5. The exhaustive views and comments received from the Railway Administrations, the Commission of Railway Safety, other Railway Institutions and the Ministry of Law, having been considered by Member Traffic, Railway Board, in consultation with the concerned Directorates, a complete revised set of General Rules for Railways administered by the Government have now been framed, sanctioned and issued by the Central Government with Notification No.69-RR/4 of this day’s date to be brought into use on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

6. The Central Government desire that the said rules may be brought to the notice of the Administrations of the several Railways, not administered by the Government and that the Heads of Railway administrations of such railways may be invited to submit a formal application for the adoption of the rules, with such modifications (if any) as may be considered necessary in each case.

Order: Ordered that this Resolution with its enclosures, be published under a Notification in the Official Gazette as required by Section 47 of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (9 of 1890) and that a copy thereof be kept open for inspection at Railway stations as directed by sub-section (4) of the same section, as also that a copy of this Resolution and of its enclosures be communicated to the Governments, Administrations and Officers, noted below for information.

B.M.KAUL Member Traffic, Railway Board and Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India