Indian Railway Classification

Beginning in the 1920s and for statistical purposes, the Government of India classified Indian railway systems according to three classes:-

Class I

Railways with gross annual earnings of over Rs 50 lakhs (Rs 50,00,000).¹

Class II

Railways with gross annual earnings of between Rs 10 and 50 lakhs.

Class III

Railways with gross annual earnings of under Rs 10 lakhs.

No further reclassification was carried out after 1942 but the rankings remained in use until the mid-1950s.

---

¹ Lakh in the Indian numbering system equates to one hundred thousand and is written as 1,00,000. 50 lakh (50,00,000) is the same as 5 million.