2 days ago
1.87 crore applications received for 64,197 railway post: Railway ministry data
The Indian Railways' 2024 recruitment has attracted a staggering 1.87 crore applications for 64,197 posts across seven major categories, according to official data shared in figures were provided by the Minister of Railways in response to a question about current vacancies and the policy roadmap for filling them on the past four to five years, pressure on recruitment has grown due to overlapping factors. A significant number of employees have reached superannuation age, while the network has been expanding and undergoing
New safety systems, electrification projects, mechanised operations, and digital technologies have been introduced, creating job roles that did not exist previously and further increasing the vacancy SCALE AND COMPETITIONThe Ministry's data shows recruitment for 1.08 lakh posts is in progress, with 92,116 vacancies already notified in 2024 through 10 Centralised Employment Notifications (CENs).The posts include Assistant Loco Pilots (ALP), Technicians, RPF personnel, junior engineers, paramedical staff, and the highly sought-after Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC).Competition for these positions is Constable posts drew 45,30,288 applications, averaging over 1,076 candidates per vacancy. NTPC (Graduate) roles saw about 720 contenders for each technical positions received massive interest, with Technician posts attracting roughly 189 applicants per vacancy and ALP posts nearly 98 candidates for every IN THE SELECTION PROCESSFor 55,197 posts, the first stage, Computer-Based Tests (CBTs) — has been completed in four phases across more than 150 cities and in 15 languages. Results for several key categories, including ALP, RPF-SI, Constable, and JE/DMS/CMA, have already been second stage of CBTs for ALP and JE/DMS/CMA has also been completed, with results Technician roles, over 9,000 candidates have already been empanelled out of the 14,298 notified vacancies. The Ministry highlighted that recruitment is often a staggered process, meaning not all vacancies are filled simultaneously, even within the same PLANS FOR 2025Looking ahead, the recruitment process for 2025 is being guided by the annual calendar introduced in major notifications have already been released: CEN 01/2025 for 9,970 ALP vacancies in March 2025, and CEN 02/2025 for 6,238 Technician posts in June OVER THE YEARSRecruitment numbers have improved over the years. Between 2004 and 2014, the Railways recruited 4.11 lakh personnel. From 2014 to 2025, that figure rose to 5.08 lakh, an increase of nearly one lakh growth has been supported by systemic reforms such as the introduction of an annual recruitment calendar, complete digitisation of tests, and the availability of multi-language measures have made the process more predictable, transparent, and accessible to candidates, with the Ministry noting that it has remained free from paper leaks or malpractices.- Ends
