Parliament Question: Recruitment in Railways from Punjab

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3965 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12.08.2026 RECRUITMENT IN RAILWAYS FROM PUNJAB 3965. DR. RAJ KUMAR CHABBEWAL: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the details of the total number of youth recruited from the State of Punjab particularly in Hoshiarpur district in the Railways in the last five years, year and district-wise; (b) the details of the skill programmes/railway recruitment camps conducted in the said State in the last five years, year and district-wise, particularly in Hoshiarpur district; (c) whether there is a gap between the actual vacancies and the number of posts notified recently for recruitment in critical entry-level posts in Railways; (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and (e) whether the Government has fixed any time frame for the filling up of all essential entry- level posts in the Railways and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (e): Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-05 to 2013-14 vis-à-vis during 2014-15 to 2025-26 is given as under: - Period Recruitments 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 4 lakh 11 thousand 2014-2015 to 2026-2027 (upto 5 lakh 56 thousand 30.06.2026) § Page 1 of 10Railways, being Central Government organization conduct recruitment on all India basis. This is in line with Constitutional provision of right to equality in matters of public employment. Every candidate irrespective of gender, language, place of birth, region etc. fulfilling eligibility criteria is free to apply. All those who apply in response to Centralised Employment Notifications (CENs), including local candidates are considered for recruitment on the Railways, on equal footing. No preference is given to candidates belonging to any State or Region nor is the recruitment restricted to any State or Region. Occurrence and filling up of vacancies are continuous processes 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, mechanisations and innovative practices. The vacancies are filled up primarily by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational and technological requirements. 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. 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’ posts. The introduction of the Annual Calendar is benefitting the aspirants in the following manner:  More opportunities for candidates;  Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year;  Certainty of exams; Page 2 of 10 Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments Presently, recruitment against 1,61,889 vacancies of non-gazetted personnel has been taken up on Indian Railways including Zonal Railways and Production Units covering Punjab as per Annual Calendar 2024, 2025 and 2026. During January to December 2024, ten Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 92,116 vacancies were notified for filling up of posts of Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs), 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), Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under-Graduate), Ministerial & Isolated Categories and Level-1 categories such as Assistants, Track Maintainers and Pointsman. First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 92116 posts have been completed. Details are as under:- Exam Candidates Cities Languages 1st Stage CBT for the post of 18,40,347 156 15 ALP (18,799 vacancies) CBT for the post of Technician 26,99,892 139 15 (14,298 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of 11,01,266 146 15 JE/DMS/CMA (7,951 vacancies) CBT for the post of RPF-SI (452 15,35,635 143 15 vacancies) Page 3 of 10CBT for the post of RPF- 45,30,288 147 15 Constable (4,208 vacancies) CBT for Paramedical 7,08,321 143 15 Categories (1,376 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non- 58,41,774 141 15 Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non- 63,27,473 157 15 Technical Popular Categories (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) CBT for Ministerial & Isolated 4,46,013 139 15 categories (1,036 vacancies) CBT for Level-1 posts (32438 1,08,28,261 152 15 vacancies) Total Candidates 3,58,59,270 2nd stage CBTs for the posts of ALP, JE/DMS/CMA and Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate & Under-Graduate) have also been completed. Details are as under: Exam Candidates Cities Languages 2nd Stage CBT for the post of ALP 2,66,363 112 15 2nd Stage CBT for the post of 1,17,339 118 15 JE/DMS/CMA 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical 1,21,931 129 15 Popular Categories (Graduate) 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical 51,978 79 15 Popular Categories (Under- Page 4 of 10Graduate). Total Candidates 5,57,611 Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for the posts of ALP and Non- Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) and Computer Based Skill Tests for the posts of Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate and Under Graduate) and Ministerial & Isolated Categories have also been completed. Details are as under: Exam Candidates Cities Languages CBAT for the post of ALP 1,32,044 84 2 Translation Test for Ministerial and 1,233 8 2 Isolated Categories CBAT for the post of Non-Technical 13,616 38 2 Popular Categories (Graduate) Computer Based Typing Skill 30,341 58 2 Test(CBTST) for the posts of Non- Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) CBTST for the post of Non-Technical 13,145 44 2 Popular Categories(Under Graduate) Total Candidates 1,90,379 During 2026-2027 (upto 30.06.2026) panels for more than 3,300 candidates (Including those belonging to Punjab) for various posts including the posts of Technicians, Junior Engineers, Paramedical Categories, Ministerial & Isolated categories and Assistant Loco Pilots have been finalised. Majority of them are in safety categories. Page 5 of 10In addition, as per Annual Calendar for the year 2025, nine Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 51970 vacancies have also been issued. Details are as under:- CEN No. Post Name No. of Month of Vacancies Notification notified 01/2025 Assistant Loco Pilots 10,970 March-2025 02/2025 Technician 6,238 June-2025 03/2025 Paramedical July-2025 434 Categories 04/2025 Section Controller 368 August-2025 05/2025 Junior Engineers 2,585 October-2025 (JEs)/ Depot Material Superintendent (DMS)/ Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant (CMA) 06/2025 Non-Technical 5,810 October-2025 Popular Categories (Graduate) 07/2025 Non-Technical 3,058 October-2025 Popular Categories (Under-Graduate) 08/2025 Isolated Categories 312 December-2025 09/2025 Level-1 posts 22,195 December-2025 Total 51,970 Page 6 of 10First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 29,775 posts have been completed. Details are as under:- Exam Candidates Cities Languages CBT for the post of Section Controller 4,33,748 131 15 (368 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP (10970 10,03,719 141 15 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of 5,74,351 133 15 JE/DMS/CMA (2585 vacancies) CBT for the post of Technician (6238 8,41,525 117 15 vacancies) CBT for Paramedical Categories (434 3,19,396 106 15 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 25,89,851 142 15 Categories (Graduate) (5810 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 32,95,980 142 15 Categories (Under Graduate) (3058 vacancies) CBT for Isolated categories (312 37,774 34 15 vacancies) Total Candidates 90,96,344 2nd stage CBTs for the posts of JE/DMS/CMA, Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) & Assistant Loco Pilots have also been completed. Details are as under: Exam Candidates Cities Languages 2nd Stage CBT for the post of 39,034 90 15 Page 7 of 10JE/DMS/CMA 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical 87,317 98 15 Popular Categories (Graduate) 2nd Stage CBT for Assistant Loco 1,60,014 91 15 Pilots Total Candidates 286,365 Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for the post of Section Controller has also been completed. Details are as under: Exam Candidates Cities Languages CBAT for the post of 2,989 24 2 Section Controller. Further, as per Annual Calendar for the year 2026, three Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 17,803 vacancies have been issued. Details are as under: CEN No. Post Name No. of Month of Vacancies Notification notified Assistant Loco March-2026 01/2026 11,127 Pilots 02/2026 Technician 6,557 May-2026 03/2026 Section Controller 119 June-2026 Indian Railways have a comprehensive training ecosystem, which provides for different sets of training interventions at various stages of career to ensure skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of Railway Employees. For this purpose, extensive training infrastructure has been created in the form of Page 8 of 10Centralised Training Institutes (CTIs), Multi-disciplinary Zonal Training Institutes (MDZTIs), Multi-disciplinary Divisional Training Institutes (MDDTIs) and specialised training centres, which conduct induction, refresher, promotional and specialized technical training programmes (such as training on new technologies like 'Kavach' etc.), relevant to their respective fields of work, at different stages of service. In Punjab, such training is imparted at railway training establishments including MDDTI, Firozpur, Technical Training Centres at Kapurthala and Patiala, and Workshop Basic Training Centre, Amritsar, etc. These institutes provide structured training to newly recruited and serving employees. Specialized initiatives such as Mission Rail Karmayogi complements this framework by providing behavioural and service-orientation training for frontline staff to improve productivity and service delivery. Employees are also encouraged to undertake continuous learning through the online IGOT Karmayogi platform. In addition, motivational and wellness initiatives, including yoga sessions, physical fitness activities and stress-management programmes during training and at workplaces, are promoted to enhance employee well-being and morale. Indian Railways also conduct Apprenticeship Training under the Apprentices Act, 1961 at its establishments, thereby contributing to skill development and enhancing the employability of local youth. In Punjab, apprenticeship training is imparted at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, Diesel Loco Shed, Ludhiana, and Technical Training Centre, Patiala. Page 9 of 10These initiatives collectively contribute towards capacity building of railway employees while apprenticeship training also contributes to skill development and employability of local youth. ***** Page 10 of 10