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RAILWAYS ACT, 1989
No. 24 OF 1989
[3rd June, 1989.]
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to Railways.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Fortieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title and commencement.
(1) This Act may be called the Railways Act, 1989.
(2) It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint:
Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and any reference in any such provisions to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.
2. Definitions.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(1) "authorized" means authorized by a railway administration;
(2) "carriage" means the carriage of passengers or goods by a railway administration;
(3) "Claims Tribunal" means the Railway Claims Tribunal established under section 3 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 (54 of 1987);
(4) "classification" means the classification of commodities made under section 31 for the purpose of determining the rates to be charged for carriage of such commodities;
(5) "class rates" means the rate fixed for a class of commodity in the classification;
(6) "Commissioner" means the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety or the Commissioner of Railway Safety appointed under section 5;
(7) "commodity" means a specific item of goods;
(8) "consignee" means the person named as consignee in a railway receipt;
(9) "consignment" means goods entrusted to a railway administration for carriage;
(10) "consignor" means the person, named in a railway receipt as consignor, by whom or on whose behalf goods covered by the railway receipt are entrusted to a railway administration for carriage;
(11) "demurrage" means the charge levied for the detention of any rolling stock after the expiry of free time, if any, allowed for such detention;
(12) "endorsee" means the person in whose favor an endorsement is made, and in the case of successive endorsements, the person in whose favor the last endorsement is made;
(13) "endorsement" means the signing by the consignee or the endorsee after adding a direction on a railway receipt to pass the property in the goods mentioned in such receipt to a specified person;
(14) "fare" means the charge levied for the carriage of passengers;
(15) "ferry" includes a bridge of boats, pontoons or rafts, a swing bridge, a fly-bridge and a temporary bridge and the approaches to, and landing places of, a ferry;
(16) "forwarding note" means the document executed under section 64;
(17) "freight" means the charge levied for the carriage of goods including transhipment charges, if any;
(18) "General Manager" means the General Manager of a Zonal Railway appointed under section 4;
(19) "goods" includes-
(i) containers, pallets or similar articles of transport used to consolidate goods; and
(ii) animals;
(20) "Government railway" means a railway owned by the Central Government;
(21) "in transit", in relation to the carriage of goods by railway, means the period between the commencement and the termination of transit of such goods, and unless otherwise previously determined-
(a) transit commences as soon as the railway receipt is issued or the consignment is loaded, whichever is earlier;
(b) transit terminates on the expiry of the free time allowed for unloading of consignment from any rolling stock and where such unloading has been completed within such free time, transit terminates on the expiry of the free time allowed, for the removal of the goods from the railway premises;
(22) "level crossing" means an inter-section of a road with lines of rails at the same level;
(23) "luggage" means the goods of a passenger either carried by him in his charge or entrusted to a railway administration for carriage;
(24) "lump sum rate" means the rate mutually agreed upon between a railway administration and a consignor for the carriage of goods and for any service in relation to such carriage
(25) "non-Government railway" means a railway other than a Government railway;
(26) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(27) "parcel" means goods entrusted to a railway administration for carriage by a passenger or a parcel train;
(28) "pass" means an authority given by the Central Government or a railway Administration to a person allowing him to travel as a passenger, but does not include a ticket;
(29) "passenger" means a person traveling with a valid pass or ticket;
(30) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(31) "railway" means a railway, or any portion of a railway, for the public carriage of passengers or goods, and includes-
(a) all lands within the fences or other boundary marks indicating the limits of the land appurtenant to a railway;
(b) all lines of rails, sidings, or yards, or branches used for the purposes of, or in connection with, a railway;
(c) all electric traction equipments, power supply and distribution installations used for the purposes of, or in connection with, a railway;.
(d) all rolling stock, stations, offices, warehouses, wharves, workshops, manufactories, fixed plant and machinery, roads and streets, running rooms, rest houses, institutes, hospitals, water works and water supply installations, staff' dwellings and any other works constructed for the purpose of, or in connection with, railway;
(e) all vehicles which are used on any road for the purposes of traffic of a railway and owned, hired or worked by a railway, and
(f) all ferries, ships, boats and rafts which are used on any canal, river, lake or other navigable inland waters for the purposes of the traffic of a railway and owned, hired or worked by a railway administration, but does not include-
(i) a tramway wholly within a municipal area;. and
(ii) lines of rails built in any exhibition ground, fair, park, or any other place solely for the purpose of recreation;
(g) "railway administration", in relation to-
(a) a Government railway, means the General Manager of a Zonal Railway; and
(b) a non-Government railway, means the parson who is the owner or lessee of the railway or the person working the railway under an agreement;
(33) "railway receipt" means the receipt issued under section 65;
(34) "railway servant" means any person employed by the Central Government or by a railway administration in connection with the service of a railway;
(35) "rate" includes any fare, freight or any other charge for the carriage of any passenger or goods;
(36) "regulations" means the regulations made by the Railway Rates Tribunal under this Act;
(37) "rolling stock" includes locomotives, lenders, carriages, wagons, rail-cars, containers, trucks, trolleys and vehicles of all kinds moving on rails;
(38) "station to station rate" means a special reduced rate applicable to a specific commodity booked between specified stations;
(39) "traffic" includes rolling stock of every description, as well as passengers and goods;
(40) "Tribunal" means the Railway Rates Tribunal constituted under section 33;
(41) "wharfage" means the charge levied on goods for not removing them from the railway after the expiry of the free time for such removal;
(42) "Zonal Railway" means a Zonal Railway constituted under section 3.
Chapter II
Railway Administrations
3. Zonal Railways.
(1) The Central Government may, for the purpose of the efficient administration of the Government railways, by notification, constitute such railways into as many Zonal Railways as it may deem fit and specify in such notification the names and headquarters of such Zonal Railways and the areas in respect of which they shall exercise jurisdiction.
(2) The Zonal Railway existing immediately before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be Zonal Railways constituted under sub-section (1).
(3) The Central Government may, by notification, declare any unit of the railways engaged in research, development designing,, construction or production of rolling stock, its parts or, other equipment used on a railway, to be a Zonal Railway.
(4) The Central Government may, by notification, abolish any Zonal Railway or constitute any new Zonal Railway out of any existing Zonal Railway or Zonal Railways, change the name or headquarters of any Zonal Railway or determine the areas in respect of which a Zonal Railway shall exercise jurisdiction.
4. Appointment of General Manager.
(1) The Central Government shall, by notification, appoint a person to be the General Manager of a Zonal Railway.
(2) The general superintendence and control of a Zonal Railway shall vest in the General Manager.
Chapter III
Commissioners of Railway Safety
5. Appointment of Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and Commissioners of Railway Safety.
The Central Government may appoint a person to be the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and such other persons as it may consider necessary to be the Commissioners of Railway Safety.
6. Duties of Commissioner.
The Commissioner shall-
(a) inspect any railway with a view to determine whether it is fit to be opened for the public carriage of passengers and report thereon to the Central Government as required by or under' this Act;
(b) make such periodical or other inspections of any railway or of any rolling stock used thereon as the Central Government may direct;
(c) make an inquiry under this Act into the cause of any accident on a railway; and
(d) discharge such other duties as are conferred on him by or under this Act.
7. Power of Commissioner.
Subject to the control of the Central Government, the Commissioner, whenever it is necessary so to do for any of the purposes of this Act, may-
(a) enter upon and inspect any railway or any rolling stock used thereon;
(b) by order in writing addressed to a railway administration, require the attendance before him of any railway servant and to require answers or returns to such inquiries as he thinks fit to make from such railway servant or from the railway administrations; and
(c) require the production of any book, document or material object belonging to or in the possession or control of any railway administration which appears to him to be necessary to inspect.
8. Commissioner to he public servant.
The Commissioner shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).
9. Facilities to be afforded to Commissioners.
A railway administration shall afford to the Commissioner all reasonable facilities for the discharge of the duties or for the exercise of the powers imposed or conferred on him by or under this Act.
10. Annual report of Commissioners.
The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety shall prepare in each financial year an annual report giving a full account of the activities of the Commissioners during the financial year immediately preceding the financial year in which such report is prepared and forward, before such date as may be specified by the Central Government, copies thereof to the Central Government and that Government shall cause that report to be laid, as soon as may be, after its receipt before each House of Parliament.
Chapter IV
Construction and Maintenance of Works
11. Power of railway administrations to execute all necessary works.
Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, but subject to the provisions of this Act and the provisions of any law for the acquisition of land f6r a public purpose or for companies, and subject also, in the case of a non-Government railway, to the provisions of any contract between the non-Government railway and the Central Government, a railway administration may, for the purposes of Constructing or maintaining a railway-
(a) make or construct in or upon, across, under or over any lands, or any streets, hills, valleys, roads, railway, tramways, or any rivers, canals, brooks, streams or other waters, or any drains, water-pipes, gas-pipes, oil-pipes, sewers. electric supply lines, or telegraph lines such, temporary or permanent inclined-planes, bridges, tunnels, culverts, embankments, aqueducts, roads, lines of rails, ways, passages, conduits, drains, piers, cuttings and fences, in-take wells, tube wells, dams, river training and protection works as it thinks proper;
(b) alter the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or other water courses, for the purpose of constructing and maintaining tunnels, bridges, passages or other works over or under them and divert or alter either temporarily or permanently, the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or other water courses or any roads, streets or ways, or raise or sink the level thereof, in order to carry them more conveniently over or under, or by the side of the railway,
(c) make drains or conduits into, through or under any lands adjoining the railway for the purpose of conveying water from or to the railway;
(d) erect and construct such houses, warehouses, offices and other buildings, and such yards, stations, wharves, engines, machinery apparatus and other works and conveniences as the railway administration thinks proper,
(e) alter, repair or discontinue such buildings, works and conveniences as aforesaid or any of them and substitute others in their stead;
(f) erect operate, maintain or repair any telegraph and telephone lines in connection with the working of the railway,
(g) erect operate, maintain or repair any electric traction equipment, power supply and distribution installation in connection with the working of the railway; and
(h) do all other acts necessary for making, maintaining, altering or repairing and using the railway.
12. Power to alter the position of pipe, electric supply fine, drain or sewer, etc.
(1) A railway administration may, for the purpose of exercising the powers conferred on it by this Act, alter the position of any pipe for the supply of gas, water, oil or compressed air, or the position of any electric supply line, drain or sewer:
Provided that before altering the position of any such pipe, electric supply line, drain or sewer, the railway administration shall, give a notice indicating the time at which the work of such alteration shall commence, to the local authority or other person having control over the pipe, electric supply line, drain or sewer.
(2) The railway administration shall execute the work referred to in sub-section (1) to the reasonable satisfaction of the local authority or the person receiving the notice under the proviso to sub-section (1).
13. Protection for Government property.
Nothing in sections 11 and 12 shall authorize-
(a) a railway administration of the Government railway to do anything on or to any works, lands or buildings vested in, or in the possession of, a State Government without the consent of that Government; and
(b) a railway administration of a non-Government railway to do anything on or to any works, lands or buildings vested in, or in the possession of, the Central Government or a State Government without the consent of the Government concerned.
14. Temporary entry upon land to remove obstruction, to repair or to prevent accident.
(1) Where in the opinion of a railway administration-
(a) there is imminent danger that any tree, post or structure may fall on the railway so as to obstruct the movement of rolling stock; or
(b) any tree, post structure or light obstructs the view of any signal provided for movement of rolling stock; or
(c) any tree, post or structure obstructs any telephone or telegraph line maintained by it, it may take such steps as may be necessary to avert such danger or remove such obstruction and submit a report thereof to the Central Government in such manner and within such time as may be prescribed.
(2) Where in the opinion of a railway administration-
(a) a slip or accident has occurred; or
(b) there is apprehension of any slip or accident to any cutting, embankment or other work on a railway, it may enter upon any lands adjoining the railway and do all such works as may be necessary for the purpose of repairing or preventing such slip or accident and submit a report thereof to the Central Government in such manner and within such time as may be prescribed.
(3) The Central Government may, after considering the report under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), in the interest of public safety, by order, direct the railway administration that further action under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be stopped or the same shall be subject to such conditions as may be specified in that order.
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