New Delhi, April 22 (IANS): Millions of Indians from various backgrounds use one common mode of transportation - the Indian Railways - which thus play a major role as an "integrator and unifier" of the country, President Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday.

"Every day, millions of passengers speaking different languages, consuming different types of food, wearing different types of dresses and believing in diverse religions use one common vehicle for transportation," Mukherjee said addressing a group of 68 probationary officials of the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) of the 2011 batch.

"They (the people) lose their individual identities and assume one common identity as passengers of the Indian Railways. The Indian Railways thus plays a major role as an integrator and unifier of this great country," he said at the event at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Congratulating the officers on the successful completion of their examinations, the president said civil engineers play a major role not only in maintaining and upgrading the railways but also "taking it to new heights of one of the largest railway networks in the world".

"Few institutions and organisations could be described as truly pan-Indian like the Indian Railways," he said.

The probationers are presently undergoing training at the Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering in Pune.