Railways Boost Recruitment: Over 5 Lakh Vacancies Filled in the Last Decade, Annual Calendar Introduced
Formfees
07/02/2025
Occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process on Indian Railways considering its size, spatial distribution and criticality of operation. Adequate and suitable manpower is provided to cater to the regular operations, changes in technology, mechanization and innovative practices. The vacancies are filled up primarily by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational and technological requirements.
After easing of restrictions imposed on account of COVID 19, two major examinations involving more than 2.37 crore candidates had been conducted successfully during 2020 to 2022.
| Exam | Candidates | Cities | Centres | Days | Shifts |
| L2 – L6 | 1.26 cr | 211 | 726 | 68 | 133 |
| L1 | 1.1 cr | 191 | 551 | 33 | 99 |
Based on these exams, 130581 candidates have been recruited in Railways.
The RRB examinations are quite technical in nature entailing large scale mobilization of men and resources and training of manpower. Railway overcame all these challenges and successfully conducted the recruitment in a transparent manner following all laid down guidelines. No instance of paper leakage or similar malpractice has occurred during the entire process.
Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-2014 vis-à-vis during 2014-2024 is given as under:-
| Period | Recruitments |
| 2004-2014 | 4.11 lakh |
| 2014-2024 | 5.02 lakh |
Further, as system improvement, the Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing the annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ post. The introduction of the annual calendar will benefit the aspirants in the following manner:
- More opportunities for candidates;
- Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year;
- Certainty of exams;
- Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments
Accordingly Ten Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 92,116 vacancies have been notified during January to December 2024 for filling up of posts of Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians, Sub-Inspectors, Constables in Railway Protection Force (RPF), Junior Engineers (JEs)/ Depot Material Superintendent (DMS)/ Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant (CMA), Paramedical Categories, Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) and Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under-Graduate), Ministerial & Isolated Categories and Level-1.
For four notifications, Computer Based Tests (CBTs) have been completed from 25.11.2024 to 30.12.2024. The details are as under:-
| Exam | Candidates | Cities | Centres | Days | Shifts |
| 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP (18,799 vacancies) | 18,40,347 | 156 | 346 | 5 | 15 |
| CBT for the post of RPF-SI (452 vacancies) | 15,35,635 | 143 | 306 | 5 | 15 |
| 1st Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA (7,951 vacancies) | 11,01,266 | 146 | 323 | 3 | 9 |
| CBT for the post of Technician (14,298 vacancies) | 22,83,812 | 139 | 312 | 9 | 27 |
However, sometime in order to meet exigencies, retired Railway employees are re-engaged against the vacant posts temporarily based on competency; experience etc. to ensure smooth progress of the developmental and other works.
This information was given by Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
