Indian Railways set to hire 89,000 employees; initiates recruitment process

Indian Railways has initiated a massive recruitment drive to hire 89,000 employees in levels C and D. This recruitment drive has been started to hire for the posts of assistant loco pilots, technicians, switchmen, trackmen, helpers, porters and many other openings. Railway minister Piyush Goyal tweeted on Wednesday that they have started the recruitment process for group D for 62,907 posts. Candidates that are high school pass or have an ITI or industrial training institute degree are eligible to apply for it, last date being March 12.

Employees who are hired will be extended a monthly salary of Rs 18,000 per month and allowances as per the Seventh Central Pay Commission (Level 1). Applicants must be 18-31 years of age and will be recruited by the Railway Recruitment Cell.
Apart from the group D posts, there are 26,502 vacancies under group C, for posts of technicians and assistant loco pilots.

The minister said tweeted that apart from these vacancies, Indian Railways is also aiming to train 30,000 apprentices this year.

According to a report in Mint, a senior railway official who wishes to remain anonymous says that most of the recruitment is for the safety category and will cost an additional Rs 3,000-4,000 crore annually to the railway exchequer. The Union Budget 2018 has provisions for this expenditure, he said.

Another anonymous senior government official said that there are over a lakh of vacancies in the railways due to retirements, and even this massive drive would not be able to fill all the gaps.

According to the report, Arunendra Kumar former railway board chairman said, “It’s an annual recruitment. It’s long overdue, especially following the average trend of 3.3% of work force retiring every year. Safety is an important aspect for railways and workforce is required to ensure it. It should happen regularly.”