Railways on track to hire 110,000 in FY19; set for massive revamp in RPF

Women count in RPF to increase 2.5 times

Indian Railways (IR) is set for what is considered the world’s largest recruitment drive by one entity, of hiring 110,000 people in 2018-19. And, it has to choose from, literally, millions.

For the 123,000 Level I vacancies in safety categories such as trackmen, gangmen, cabin men, and also porters, it has got 18.7 million applications. 

For the posts of assistant locomotive pilots and assorted technicians, described as Level II, it has around 17,500 vacancies and, 5.5 million applications.

Levels I and II are part of what are termed Group C and D. IR is hiring about 100,000 people for Group C and D posts (the vacancies here are about 225,000). The last date to apply is this Saturday.

Additionally, it is hiring 9,500, including constables and sub-inspectors, in the Railway Protection Force (RPF). “There is going to be a massive revamp in RPF, with the total number rising to 76,179. Giving importance to women safety, we are hiring 4,200 women officials. With this, the share of women employees is set to increase to 8.6 per cent, from a mere 3.5 per cent,” said an official.     

railways

At present, there are 2,400 women in the RPF’s strength of about 66,700.

Last year, the railways had grabbed headlines by conducting the world’s largest online examination, in which 9.2 million job applications came for 18,252 vacancies. 

“This year’s online recruitment process will be much higher and we have already come out with advertisements in visual and print media, to avoid fraud,” the official added.

As of December 2016, the railways’ staff strength was a little more than 1.3 million.

A recent audit of the number of gazetted officers conducted by Deloitte stated IR was neither “understaffed nor overstaffed” in the officers’ category; these number 18,000. Deloitte was to formulate a personnel policy for the gazetted officers.

IR’s staff costs were Rs 720 billion in 2017-18, from Rs 697 billion in 2016-17. For Level I employees, the monthly salary will be Rs 18,000, besides allowances.

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

• Indian Railways has a network of more than 67,312 route km
• 12,600 trains carrying 23 million passengers a day run on it
• Out of the 9,500 new recruits in RPF, 4,200 will be women
• The share of women employees to increase from a mere 3.5% to 8.6%