Parliament Question: Examinations conducted by Railway Recruitment Board

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3949 ANSWERED ON 27.03.2026 EXAMINATIONS CONDUCTED BY RAILWAY RECRUITMENT BOARD 3949 SHRI SHAKTISINH GOHIL: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) posts for which Railway recruitment Board has conducted examinations as on 31 January 2026, in the last five years; (b) number of candidates who appeared in each examination; (c) the details of appointment of the candidates who passed the examinations; (d) the reasons for not conducting face-to-face interviews by any agency after the written examination; (e) number of posts that remained vacant against sanctioned posts in Railway; (f) the reasons for the vacancies; and (g) the number and list of officers who have been given extension even after retirement? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (g): 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 4.11 lakh 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 5.08 lakh 2025-26 till date 43,230 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. No instance of paper leakage or similar malpractice has occurred during the entire process. § Page 1 of 5Further, 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;  Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments Presently, recruitment against 1,43,086 vacancies of non-gazetted personnel has been taken up on Indian Railways as per Annual Calendar 2024 and 2025. 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 92,116 posts have been completed. Details are as under: - Exam Candidates Cities Languages 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP (18,799 vacancies) 18,40,347 156 15 CBT for the post of Technician (14,298 vacancies) 26,99,892 139 15 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 (452 vacancies) 15,35,635 143 15 CBT for the post of RPF-Constable (4,208 vacancies) 45,30,288 147 15 CBT for Paramedical Categories (1,376 vacancies) 7,08,321 143 15 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Categories 58,41,774 141 15 (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Categories 63,27,473 157 15 (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) CBT for Ministerial & Isolated categories 4,46,013 139 15 (1,036 vacancies) § Page 2 of 5CBT for level-1 posts (32438 vacancies) 1,08,28,261 152 15 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 (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 Categories 1,21,931 129 15 (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Categories 51,978 79 15 (Under-Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) Total Candidates 5,57,611 Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for the post of ALP and Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) and Computer based Skill Test for the post 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 Isolated Categories 1,233 8 2 CBAT for the post of Non-Technical Popular Categories 13,616 38 2 (Graduate) Computer Based Typing Skill Test (CBTST) for the post of 30,341 58 2 Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) Computer Based Typing Skill Test (CBTST) for the post of 13,145 44 2 Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under-Graduate) Total Candidates 1,90,379 Panels for more than 43,000 candidates for various posts including the posts of Technicians, Junior Engineers, Paramedical Categories, Sub-Inspectors & Constable (RPF) and Assistant Loco Pilots have been finalised. Majority of them are in safety categories. § Page 3 of 5In addition, as per Annual Calendar for the year 2025, nine Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 50,970 vacancies have also been issued. Details are as under: CEN No. Post Name No. of Vacancies Month notified of Notification 01/2025 Assistant Loco Pilots 9,970 March 2025 02/2025 Technician 6,238 June 2025 03/2025 Paramedical categories 434 July 2025 04/2025 Section Controller 368 August 2025 Junior Engineer (JE)/ Depot 2,585 October 2025 Material Superintendent/Chemical & 05/2025 Metallurgical Assistant Non-Technical Popular 5,810 October 2025 06/2025 Categories (Graduate) Non-Technical Popular 3,058 October 2025 07/2025 Categories (Under-Graduate) 08/2025 Isolated Categories 312 December 2025 Level-1 posts 09/2025 22,195 December 2025 Total 50,970 First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 19,595 posts have been completed. Details are as under: - Exam Candidates Cities Languages 141 15 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP (9970 vacancies) 10,03,719 CBT for the post of Section Controller 131 15 4,33,748 (368 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA 5,74,351 133 15 (2585 vacancies) 8,41,525 117 15 CBT for the post of Technician (6238 vacancies) CBT for the post of Paramedical Categories 3,19,396 106 15 (434 vacancies) 31,72,739 Total Candidates Further, 11,127 vacancies of ALP as per Annual Calendar 2026 have also been notified in March, 2026. Pursuant to the acceptance of recommendations of committee of Secretaries regarding “discontinuation of interviews at the lower-level posts”, Ministry of Railways decided to discontinue the practice of interview/viva-voce while conducting recruitment for non-gazetted posts against direct recruitment quota vacancies through all modes since 2016. § Page 4 of 5There is no scheme of extension of service after retirement. However, sometimes in order to meet exigencies, retired railway employees are re-engaged against the vacant posts temporarily based on competency, experience etc. to ensure smooth progress of the developmental and other works till the vacancies are filled up on regular basis as per the laid down rules and procedure. ***** § Page 5 of 5