1.29 lakh safety-related Railways posts lying vacant

New Delhi: Over 1 lakh posts related to the Railways' safety mechanism were vacant as of April 2017, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said that efforts are being made to fill up the vacant posts expeditiously.

"The number of posts lying vacant in safety cadres over all zonal railways is 1,28,942 as of April 2017. The number of vacant posts of all loco running categories including drivers is 17,457," the minister said. The minister further stated that in the past five years, a total of 50,463 candidates had been empanelled for the post of assistant loco pilot through railway recruitment boards. Commenting on the long-drawn-out process of recruitment in the transport behemoth, Gohain said that every stage of a written exam takes around three to four months, which includes issue of notices to candidates requiring about three weeks.

The complete recruitment process, Gohain said, takes one-and-a-half to two years. The railways has witnessed a spate of accidents in the recent past.