Lok Sabha Question No. 504 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-03
Subject: Engagement of Retired Railway Employees
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Asaduddin Owaisi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 504

TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.12.2025

## ENGAGEMENT OF RETIRED RAILWAY EMPLOYEES

## 504. SHRI ASADUDDIN OWAISI :

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Government  is  increasingly  appointing retired staff for various operational and technical roles in light of emerging demands in train services;
- (b)  if  so,  the  details  of  the  number  of  retired  personnel  rehired  by  the Railways during the last three years zone and year-wise;
- (c) the details of the reasons for preferring reappointment of retired staff over fresh recruitment through competitive examinations;
- (d) whether the Government has undertaken any assessment of the impact of  such  reappointments  on  employment  opportunities  for  qualified  young aspirants and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the details of the steps being taken to ensure that fresh recruitment to critical  railway  posts  is  not  neglected  in  favour  of  short-term  stop-gap measures?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (e) : Occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process 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,  mechanization  and  innovative practices. 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.

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 59,678 posts has been completed.  Details are as under:-

| 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 (4,208                    | 45,30,288    |      147 |          15 |

| vacancies)                                                                             |           |     |    |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------|-----|----|
| CBT for Paramedical Categories (1,376 vacancies)                                       | 7,08,321  | 143 | 15 |
| 1 st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Categories (Graduate) (8,113 vacancies)       | 58,41,774 | 141 | 15 |
| 1 st Stage CBT for Non-Technical Popular Categories (Under Graduate) (3,445 vacancies) | 63,27,473 | 157 | 15 |
| CBT for Ministerial & Isolated categories (1,036 vacancies)                            | 4,46,013  | 139 | 15 |

2 nd   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 Categories (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  has  commenced  from 27.11.2025 in 140 cities in 15 languages. Physical efficiency Test (PET) for 4,208 vacancies of Constable (RPF) has 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.    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. Details are as under:-

|   S. No. | 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 Categories                          | 434                         | July 2025               |
|        4 | 04/2025   | Section Controllers                              | 368                         | August 2025             |
|        5 | 05/2025   | Junior Engineers / Depot Material Superintendent | 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-àvis during 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 is given as under :-

| Period                 | Recruitments   |
|------------------------|----------------|
| 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 | 4.11 lakh      |
| 2014-2015 to 2024-2025 | 5.08 lakh      |

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'  post.  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

However, sometime 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.

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