The Ministry of Railways has unified 08 spheres of the Indian railways via the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) exam. This exam will be conducted to recruit candidates for these posts. IRMS, after unifying the 08 existing services, will be creating a new Group A central service for railways recruitment. The services that are going to be merged are as follows:
- Indian Railway Service of Engineers
- Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers
- Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers
- Indian Railway Stores Service
- Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers
- Indian Railway Traffic Service
- Indian Railway Personnel Service
- Indian Railway Accounts Services
As per sources, as and when the vacancies are released, the number is expected to be more than 500. So far, it is known that there are a total of 508 vacancies. The number of vacancies is again divided among different posts. Check out the table given below to know more.
| Post | Vacancies |
| IRSE | 83 |
| IRSME | 126 |
| IRSEE | 179 |
| IRSSE | 120 |
The vacancy details were procured in an RTI filed by the Youtuber Mechanical Guruji, who explains the exam details in a video on his channel. A snapshot of the same can be found below –
The video by Mechanical Guruji can be found here.
According to press information from 2019, only the officers of IRMS are going to be eligible for becoming functional members and chairman or CEO of the Railway Board. The notification also says that the future recruits to IRMS are going to be made through UPSC Civil Services with due consultation of UPSC and DOPT.
Exam Pattern
The examination pattern of the IRMS recruitment will be done through the UPSC IES exam. This examination will have three stages namely the prelims, mains and interview round. Prelims or the first round will be a screening test in which there will be multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Those candidates who will qualify for the prelims round will be eligible to appear for the stage 2 or mains exam.
Mains or the second round of the recruitment exam will follow a descriptive pattern of answers. Just like the first round, candidates who will qualify for the mains round will be called for the interview or personality test. It must be noted that the final merit list is going to be prepared as per the performance of the candidates in the mains and interview rounds. After that, the shortlisted candidates will be required to go through the medical examination and document verification rounds.
Once the official notification is released, the minimum qualifying marks, cut-offs, etc. are going to be mentioned in the official notification. After securing the minimum qualifying marks, candidates will be recruited for posts such as Mechanical Engineers, Civil Engineers, Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers.
