The railways aim to close the gap between the total number of sanction posts and vacant posts by 43 percent by April (representative image)
Union Railways Minister Ashwin Vaishnaw said that out of 14.93 lakh sanctioned posts in Indian Railways, more than 3.14 lakh are currently vacant.
The Indian Railways will fill nearly 1.35 lakh vacancies this year. Union Railways Minister Ashwin Vaishnaw said that out of 14.93 lakh sanctioned posts in Indian Railways, more than 3.14 lakh are currently vacant. He added that the vacancies are being filled among the candidates who have appeared for recruitment exams in recent years, The Hindu reported. The railways aim to close the gap between the total number of sanction posts and vacant posts by 43 percent by April.
Between 2020 and 2022, nearly 3.65 crore candidates have applied for the railway recruitment process. According to the report, up to 1,03,769 of the posts are in the Level 1 category. So far, about 1.1 crore candidates have applied for Level 1 positions, including vacancies for switch guards, electrical works, trans persons, signal and telecom assistants .
About 1.25 crore candidates have applied for Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) exams to be held between December 2020 and July 2021. Another 1.3 crore aspirants have applied for the Indian Railways NTPC recruitment exams to be held between 9 May and 11 October 2022.
Once the exam is over, the next stage includes Physical Efficiency Tests (PET) for job openings such as trans persons. Male candidates must run 1500 meters in 4.15 minutes, while female candidates must run 1000 meters in 5.40 minutes. These physical tests are likely to be completed in February.
Before the pandemic, a recruitment exam center could easily accommodate up to 1,000 applicants. This was later reduced to 200-300 applicants due to strict social distancing standards. The guidelines and standards of the coronavirus have led to an increase in the number of exam days, delaying the recruitment process.
Indian Railways has partnered with some IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), National Computer Institute of Technology (NCIT) and Aptech to conduct computer-based testing for the recruitment process. The report added that the Railways spent around Rs 300 to Rs 400 per candidate at each stage of the exam. Conducting the exams has cost Railways more than Rs 1,200 crore.
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