Parliament Question: Railway Recruitment and Vacancies

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4348 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.03.2026 RAILWAY RECRUITMENT AND VACANCIES †4348. SHRI DINESH CHANDRA YADAV: SHRI AJAY KUMAR MANDAL: SHRI GIRIDHARI YADAV: SHRI SACHITHANANTHAM R: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the number of appointments made in Railways across the country during the last five years, Year and post-wise; (b) the number of vacancies in Railways, Post-wise; (c) whether the process to fill the said vacant posts in Railways is under progress, if so, the details thereof along with expected time limit; (d) the details of vacant posts in the Railways in the last three years, year and region-wise; (e) the number of posts reserved for SC/ST out of the said vacant posts and the reasons for not filling the said posts; and (f) the total number of vacancies in safety-critical categories such as loco pilots, track maintainers and signal staff as on date, Zone-wise? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (f): Recruitment done in Indian Railways during 2004-05 to 2013-14 vis-à-vis during 2014-15 to 2024-25 is given as under: - Period Recruitments SC category ST category 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 4.11 lakh 64,244 (15.6%) 36,231 (8.8%) 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 5.08 lakh 79,115 (15.6%) 42,989 (8.5%) §-2- 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. 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;  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. Contd.3/--3- 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 (including Technician Grade-I Signal), Sub-Inspectors, Constables in Railway Protection Force (RPF), Junior Engineers (JEs)/ Depot Material Superintendent (DMS)/ Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant (CMA) (including JE Signal), 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 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 (452 vacancies) 15,35,635 143 15 CBT for the post of RPF-Constable (4,208 45,30,288 147 15 vacancies) CBT for Paramedical Categories (1,376 7,08,321 143 15 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 58,41,774 141 15 Categories (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) Contd.4/--4- 1st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular 63,27,473 157 15 Categories (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) CBT for Ministerial & Isolated categories 4,46,013 139 15 (1,036 vacancies) CBT 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 1,17,339 118 15 JE/DMS/CMA (7,951 vacancies) 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical 1,21,931 129 15 Popular Categories (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) 2nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical 51,978 79 15 Popular Categories (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 Contd.5/--5- 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 Test 30,341 58 2 (CBTST) for the post of Non- Technical Popular Categories (Graduate-level) Computer Based Typing Skill Test 13,145 44 2 (CBTST) for the post of Non- Technical Popular Categories (Under- Graduate-level) Total Candidates 1,90,379 Panels for more than 42,000 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. In 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: Contd.6/--6- CEN No. Post Name No. of Month Vacancies of Notification notified 01/2025 Assistant Loco Pilots 9,970 March 2025 Technician (including Technician June 2025 02/2025 6,238 Grade-I Signal) 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 & Metallurgical Assistant 05/2025 (including JE Signal) Non-Technical Popular 5,810 October 2025 06/2025 Categories (Graduate) Non-Technical Popular 3,058 October 2025 07/2025 Categories (Under-Graduate) December 08/2025 Isolated Categories 312 2025 Level-1 posts (Including Assistants, Track December 09/2025 Maintainers and Pointsman) 22,195 2025 Total 50,970 First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 19,595 posts have been completed. Details are as under: - Contd.7/--7- Exam Candidates Cities Languages 141 15 1st Stage CBT for the post of ALP 10,03,719 (9970 vacancies) CBT for the post of Section Controller 131 15 4,33,748 (368 vacancies) 1st Stage CBT for the post of 5,74,351 133 15 JE/DMS/CMA (2585 vacancies) CBT for the post of Technician 8,41,525 117 15 (6238 vacancies) CBT for the post of Paramedical 3,19,396 106 15 Categories (434 vacancies) Total Candidates 31,72,739 Further, 11,127 vacancies of ALP have been approved for notification in the Calendar year 2026. *****