Railways to hire 2.3 lakh people over next two years

New Delhi: Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said Indian Railways would recruit 2.3 lakh employees over the next two years. The recruitment drive will be undertaken in two phases.

Indian Railways, the largest government employer, has a sanctioned strength of 15,06,598 employees. Out of these, 12,23,622 personnel are on the rolls. In 2018, the railways initiated recruitment for 1,51,548 posts, thereby leaving 1,31,428 posts vacant.

The railways in a press statement said that 53,000 and 46,000 employees would retire during 2019-20 and 2020-2021 causing an additional vacancy of approximately 99,000 employees. Thus, after accounting for the recruitment in progress, there will be total net vacancies of 2,30,000 employees in the railways over next two years.

“The railways are undergoing a transformation where a lot of works are being outsourced. We were hoping that the government would try to concentrate the manpower to lower the burden, but it doesn’t seem to be in mood to take any bold step,” a senior railway official said on condition of anonymity.

Goyal also announced that Indian Railways’ recruitment drive would also become the first major recruitment with the benefit of 10% reservation for economically weaker sections after the 103rd Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Parliament.

He said that survey of web portal Naukri.com had shown that 84% of the recruiters said that enormous job opportunities would be created in January-June 2019 -- 20% more than last time and with only 1% chance of layoff.