Lok Sabha Question No. 156 (STARRED), answered on 2025-12-10
Subject: Assessment of Working of Railway Stations
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Parshottambhai Rupala

## 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.

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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.

## First stage/Single stage Computer Based Tests (CBTs) for 59,678 posts has been completed.  Details are as below:

| Exam                                                                                 | Candidates   |   Cities |   Languages |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|----------|-------------|
| 1 st 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 |
| 1 st Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA (7,951 vacancies)                          | 11,01,266    |      146 |          15 |
| CBT for the post of RPF-SI (452 vacancies)                                           | 15,35,635    |      143 |          15 |
| CBT for the post of RPF-Constable (4208 vacancies)                                   | 45,30,288    |      147 |          15 |
| CBT for Paramedical Categories (1,376 vacancies)                                     | 7,08,321     |      143 |          15 |
| 1 st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Category (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies)       | 58,41,774    |      141 |          15 |
| 1 st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Category (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) | 63,27,473    |      157 |          15 |
| CBT for Ministerial & Isolated categories (1,036 vacancies)                          | 4,46,013     |      139 |          15 |

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 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|----------|-------------|
| 2 nd Stage CBT for the post of ALP (18,799 vacancies)                          | 2,66,363     |      112 |          15 |
| 2 nd Stage CBT for the post of JE/DMS/CMA (7,951 vacancies)                    | 1,17,339     |      118 |          15 |
| 2 nd Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Category (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies) | 1,21,931     |      129 |          15 |

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 (18,799 vacancies) | 1,32,044     |       84 |           2 |

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.

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 No.   | Post Name                | No. of Vacancies notified   | Month of Notification   |
|------|-----------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|-------------------------|
|    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            |
|    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:-

| 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

-  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 interse  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.

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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