Parliament Question: Assessment of Working of Railway Stations

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 156 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2025 ASSESSMENT OF WORKING OF RAILWAY STATIONS *156. SHRI PARSHOTTAMBHAI RUPALA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) the division-wise details of actions taken/being taken by the Government to assess the workload, manpower requirements and modernising the working of Railway stations across the country as on date;

(b) whether the Government has received any representations regarding the assessment of workload, manpower and modernisation of operational practices at Railway stations and if so, the details thereof;

and

(c) whether the Government has engaged/proposes to engage any consulting firm or expert agency for carrying out this major assessment/modernisation exercise and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (c) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 156 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2025

(a) to (c) Assessment of workload and manpower requirement is a continuous and ongoing process on Indian Railways. This is done with the view of the introduction of new norms and technologies, changes in working systems, and creation of new assets etc.This study/exercise is carried out mainly departmentally and sometimes engaging outside agencies.

Adequate manpower is provided at railway stations based on their classification, duty hours prescribed under the Hours of Employment Regulations (HOER), and manpower yardsticks for various activities.

Technological improvement in Indian Railways is a continuous process and aspires to democratize the use of technology. It aims to address India centric challenges, create economic and employment opportunities for Indian citizens.

Recruitment on Indian Railways:

Occurrence and filling up of vacancies are continuous processes on Indian Railways considering its size, spatial distribution and criticality of operation.

The vacancies are filled up primarily by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational and technological requirements.

Presently recruitment of 1,20,579 vacancies has been taken up on Indian Railways as per annual calendar 2024 and 2025. ..2/--2- First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 59,678 posts has been completed. Details are as below:

Exam Candidates Cities Languages 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP (18,799 18,40,347 156 15 vacancies) CBT for the post of Technician (14,298 26,99,892 139 15 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA 11,01,266 146 15 (7,951 vacancies) CBT for the post of RPF-SI 15,35,635 143 15 (452 vacancies) CBT for the post of RPF-Constable (4208 45,30,288 147 15 vacancies) CBT for Paramedical Categories 7,08,321 143 15 (1,376 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 58,41,774 141 15 Category (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 63,27,473 157 15 Category (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) CBT for Ministerial & Isolated categories 4,46,013 139 15 (1,036 vacancies) ..3/--3- 2nd stage CBTs for the posts of ALP, JE/DMS/CMA and Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) has also been completed. Details are as under: - Exam Candidates Cities Languages 2nd Stage CBT for the post of ALP 2,66,363 112 15 (18,799 vacancies) 2nd Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA 1,17,339 118 15 (7,951 vacancies) 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 1,21,931 129 15 Category (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for the post of ALP has also been completed. Details are as under:- Exam Candidates Cities Languages CBAT for the post of ALP 1,32,044 84 2 (18,799 vacancies) CBT for 32,438 vacancies for level -1 categories commenced from 27.11.2025 in 140 cities in 15 languages. Physical efficiency Test (PET) for 4,208 vacancies of Constable (RPF) commenced from 13.11.2025.

Panels for more than 23,000 candidates including the posts of Technicians, Junior Engineers, Paramedical Categories, Sub-Inspectors (RPF) and Assistant Loco Pilots have been sent to indenting Railways. The majority of them are in safety categories.

.. 4/-- 4 - In addition, as per Annual Calendar for the year 2025, seven Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 28,463 vacancies have also been

issued:

SN CEN Post Name No. of Month of No. Vacancies Notification notified 1 01/2025 Assistant Loco Pilots 9,970 March 2025 2 02/2025 Technicians 6,238 June 2025 3 03/2025 Para-medical 434 July 2025 4 04/2025 Section Controllers 368 August 2025 5 05/2025 Junior Engineers / Depot 2,585 October 2025 Material Superintendent 6 06/2025 NTPC (Graduate) 5,810 October 2025 7 07/2025 NTPC (Under-Graduate) 3,058 October 2025 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. No instance of paper leakage or similar malpractice has occurred during the entire process.

Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 vis-à-vis during 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 is given as under:- ..5/--5- Period Recruitments 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 4.11 lakhs 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 5.08 lakhs Further, as a system improvement, the Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing an annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ posts. The introduction of annual calendar is

benefitting the aspirants in the following manner:- • More opportunities for candidates; • Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year; • Certainty of exams; • Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments.

Redevelopment of Railway stations:

To improve operational efficiency of stations and passengers’ experience, Ministry of Railways has launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for redevelopment and modernisation of stations with a long-term approach.

The scheme involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the stations. The master planning

includes:  Improvement of access to station and circulating areas  Integration of station with both sides of city  Improvement of station building  Improvement of waiting halls, toilets, sitting arrangement, water booths ..6/--6-  Provision of wider foot over bridge/air concourse commensurate with passenger traffic  Provision of lift/escalators/ramp  Improvement /Provision of platform surface and cover over platforms  Provision of kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’  Parking areas, Multimodal integration  Amenities for Divyangjans  Better passenger information systems  Provision of executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station The scheme also envisages sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term.

So far 1337 stations have been identified under this scheme and till now works of 155 stations have been completed.

Further development / redevelopment / upgradation / modernisation of stations on Indian Railways is a continuous and ongoing process and works in this regard are undertaken as per requirement, subject to inter- se priority and availability of funds. The priority for development / redevelopment / upgradation / modernisation of stations is accorded to higher category of station over lower category of station while sanctioning and executing the works.

..7/--7- Development / Upgradation of railway stations is complex in nature involving safety of passengers & trains and requires various statutory clearances such as fire clearance, heritage, tree cutting, airport clearance etc. The progress also gets affected due to brownfield related challenges such as shifting of utilities (involving water/sewage lines, optical fibre cables, gas pipe lines, power/signal cables, etc.), infringements, operation of trains without hindering passenger movement, speed restrictions due to works carried out in close proximity of tracks and high voltage power lines, etc. and these factors affect the completion time.

Further, proposals/requests/suggestions/representations, both formal and informal, for assessment of workload and manpower, across the country are received on the basis of demands raised by members of parliament, ministries of central government, elected representatives, railway’s own requirements, organizations/rail-users, etc., at various levels including railway board, zonal railways, division office, etc. Receipt of such proposals/requests/suggestions/representations is a continuous and dynamic process and these are examined and action, as found feasible/justified, is taken from time to time and centralized compendium for the same is not maintained.

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