Once again! Lakhs of jobs - Indian Railways to launch massive recruitment drive; key details here

The Modi government appears to be determined to go ahead showing that the 103rd Constitutional Amendment passed recently by Parliament is able to provide benefits of 10% reservations to EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) category in the first major recruitment of Indian Railways. The drive is expected to create massive employment generation with 2,30,000 direct jobs which will be conducted in two-phases under the fresh criteria of reservation, according to a government statement. The Phase-I, which will start in February-March 2019 will complete by April-May 2020, is expected to have 1,31,428 posts, while the Phase II, which will start in May-June 2020 will complete by July-August 2021, will comprise 99,000 posts, said the Ministry of Railways.

Out of the total positions, about 34,000, 17,000 and 62,000 posts will be reserved for SC, ST and OBC candidates respectively. As per the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, 10% of these vacancies, i.e. around 23,000, shall be reserved for candidates from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), it added.

According to the statement, Indian Railways is consistently expanding its workforce to match the manpower requirements of new projects and increase the overall efficiency of the entire railway network. The recruitment drives will fix long-standing issues of overtime work, delay in project implementation, low efficiency, and constraints on upgradation. 

With the increase in investment in Railways being threefold since 2014, recruitment needs have also increased, which will lead to job-led growth and expansion of Indian Railways, it said.

Presently, Indian Railways has a sanctioned strength of 15,06,598 employees. Out of these, 12,23,622 personnel are on roll. The remaining  2,82,976 are vacant posts. Recruitment for 1,51,548 posts is going on, leaving 1,31,428 posts still vacant. 

Notably, approximately 53,000 and 46,000 railway employees shall retire in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively, causing an additional vacancy of approximately 99,000 employees. Thus, after accounting for the current recruitment in progress, there will be total net vacancies of 1,31,428 and approximately 99,000 i.e. approximately 2,30,000 employees in the railways over the next two years, the statement added.

Further, it stated that the recruitment will take place for various cadres and minimum eligibility criteria shall vary from certification from Industrial Training Institutes or Diploma/above in Engineering or Graduation in any discipline, depending on the post for which the candidate is applying.