Railway Board: Two stream options available for officer's recruitment through CSE since 2022

NEW DELHI: The Railway Board has decided to offer the options of streams -- Traffic, Accounts and Personnel -- to the officers recruited through the Civil Services Examination in 2022, 2023 and 2024 for the Indian Railway Management Services. After a change in the recruitment pattern of officers of eight Group A services in 2019, two batches were already recruited in 2022 and 2023 and the third batch is in the recruitment process through the CSE in 2024.

The Railway Ministry decided to go back to the pre-2019 examination pattern through a Gazette notification on October 9, 2024, and it will be applicable from 2025. “So far as the three batches of officers recruited/being recruited to the IRMS through the CSE-2022, 2023 & 2024 is concerned, it has been decided that these probationers may be given a choice to opt for either of the three sub-cadres of IRMS, ie, IRMS (Traffic), IRMS (Personnel) or IRMS (Accounts),” a written communication of the Railway Board to the Director General, Indian Railway Institute of Transport Management (IRITM), said.

It added, “DG (IRITM) shall be the competent authority to allocate the above-mentioned three sub-cadres based on the options exercised by the probationers on joining IRITM.” Suggesting the reversal in the exam pattern, the letter said, “Ministry of Railway (Railway Board) has decided that, from the year 2025 onwards, officers will be recruited to the eight sub-cadres of the Indian Railway Management Services (IRMS) both through the Civil Services Exam (CSE) as well as Engineering Services Exam (ESE), as per the amendments to the RRs (Recruitment Rules) of IRMS published in the Gazette of India on date 09.10.2024.”

In 2019, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the unification of eight Group A services of the railways into a central service - the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) and their recruitment through a single examination, -- the CSE. Before 2019, three branches of non-technical services - the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS), the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) and the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) were recruited through the CSE.

Five branches of technical services - the Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRES), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), and Indian Railway Stores Services (IRSS) were recruited through Engineering Service Exams (ESE).