Explore India: Railway Recruitment Boards

Formation

In 1942, a Service Commission was established for recruiting staff for north western railway. In 1945 similar service commissions were set up at Madras, Bombay Lucknow and Calcutta by the Railway Board for catering to recruitment needs of the respective regions. At one stage in 1949, due to the financial crisis, a ban was imposed on recruitment and service commissions were reduced to only one at Bombay. As the situated eased in service commissions were introduced in various years in the different regions as shown

1953-54 Bombay, Madras, Allahabad, Calcutta

1973 Muzaffarpur, Ranchi

1978 Secunderabad, Guwahati
1980 Bangalore
1981 Danapur
1983 Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhuvneshwar, Chandigarh, Jammu and Srinagar

1984 Malda, Gorakhpur

During the year 1985, the service commissions were rechristened as Railway Recruitment Boards. At present there are 19 RRBs all over India. In the year 1998, to oversee these RRBs, Railway Recruitment Control Board (RRCB), New Delhi was formed. Its functions include formation of policies for recruitment, monitoring, and evaluating RRBs including monitoring the expenditure incurred for recruitment.

Recruitment Process:

RRBs recruit Group C personnel for zonal railways and production units. The posts include technical and non technical posts. Each zonal railway/ production unit sends its requirement of personnel through an indent to the respective RRB in that zone. Based on this requirement RRB issues a notification indicating the posts for recruitment. It is released in the Employment news, internet site of RRBs and other leading news papers. Normally there are two notifications issued by RRB in a year. In order to ensure uniformity through out the RRBs, there is a standard format for application.

The applications are scrutinized for different eligibility criteria and a list of eligible candidates is made. Then the date and centre for exam is decided and intimated to the candidates appearing through call letters normally sent one month in advance. The list of names of ineligible candidates are posted in the RRB website.

The exam is conducted in one/ two stage depending on the nature of the post. There are no interviews for most of the posts. In two stage examination the written test will be followed by skill/ aptitude test. In posts relating to safety a psychological test will also be held.

The selection process is based on merit and is subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), Government of India which includes reservation of jobs for certain castes/communities such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Communities (OBC), etc. Ex-servicemen are also entitled for reservation as per the rules. The entire computerized recruitment system functions impersonally without fear or favour. There is no scope for corruption, influence or discretion in this process. Candidates indulging in malpractices and unfair means are dealt with strictly and debarred from appearing for all RRB examinations.

Candidates qualified in all stages of the examination are intimated by the following ways:- through post, through the Internet website, in "The Employment News" and on the Notice Board of RRB

Then they are finally called for document verification, wherein, all the records are verified and checked with original documents After verification the list of successful candidates will be sent to concerned Personnel Officer who had indented for it. The candidates will be required to pass a medical examination before appointment.

The websites of various RRBs are given below:-

Ahmedabad : http://www.rrbahmedabad.gov.in/

Ajmer : www.rrbajmer.org/index.html

Allahabad : www.rrbald.nic.in

Bangalore : http://www.rrbbnc.gov.in/

Bhopal : www.rrbbpl.nic.in

Bhubaneswar : http://www.rrcbbs.org.in/

Chandigarh : www.rrbcdg.org

Chennai : www.rrbchennai.net

Gorakhpur : www.rrbgkp.gov.in

Guwahati : http://rrbguwahati.gov.in/

Jammu & Srinagar : www.rrbjammu.nic.in