NEW DELHI, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Indian Railways will for the first time go all vegetarian on Oct. 2 to mark the 150th birth anniversary of pre-independence icon Mahatma Gandhi.

"Instructions have been given in all zonal railways to serve vegetarian meals on the trains. The vegetarian meals will be served on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti," spokesperson for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Siddharth Singh told the media.

A senior official said on Saturday that this is for the first the Indian Railways has decided to serve vegetarian meals on all its outstation trains on Oct. 2. "The one-day gesture will be a kind of tribute to the Father of the Nation," he said.

The Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates some 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.

This vast public enterprise can be referred to as a semi-state. It runs schools, hospitals, has its own police force and construction companies, and has 1.3 million people on its payroll, making it the seventh biggest employer in the world.

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pledged 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernize and expand the railways.