Railway Officers Will Be Recruited Through Engineering Services Exam (ESE) Again

Now the recruitment of railway officers will be through the Civil Services Exam (CSE) and Engineering Services Exam (ESE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). As per the office memorandum to the Chairman, Railway Board, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the decision is taken considering the Ministry of Railways proposal dated October 3, 2024.

According to the DoPT letter dated October 5, 2024, “Considering the unique requirement of both technical and non-technical manpower in Ministry of Railways, the in-principle approval of this department to the proposal of Ministry of Railways for recruitment through UPSC-ESE and UPSC-CSE is hereby conveyed subject to… conditions”.

In 2019, the cabinet decided to recruit officers to the Indian Railway Management System (IRMS) through CSE only. However, the DoPT also said in the memorandum that the proposed scheme of recruitment shall not be in contravention to the December 2019 decision of the cabinet to bring a new recruitment process.

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Satish Kumar, Chairman and CEO, of the Railway Board, in a letter to Ministry of Telecommunication said, “It is requested that the participation of Ministry of Railways for recruitment of engineers in various disciplines through ESE-2025 to the IRMS may kindly be added to the existing notification by issuing addendum to it. In order to provide ample opportunity to the candidates for applying, it is proposed that the last date of submission of application may be suitably extended and notified in the UPSC’s website.”

The Ministry of Telecommunications has already notified ESE Rules for 2025, with the last date for submission of application as October 10, 2024. The syllabus of the exam will be equally applicable to IRMS.

The ministry said that nearly a total of 225 vacancies would be filled through ESE-2020 and the new engineers will be categories as IRMS (Civil), IRMS (Mechanical), IRMS (Electrical), IRMS (S&T) and IRMS (Stores). The tentative number of vacancies to be filled through ESE 2025 are 75 for IRMS (Civil), 40 for IRMS (Mechanical), 50 for IRMS (Electrical), 40 for IRMS (S&T) and 20 for IRMS (Stores).

Reportedly, the nodal department of ESE and UPSC have been informed about the DoPT decision.