First time in July 1942, as an experimental measure, a Service Commission with a Chairman and two members was established for recruitment of Subordinate Staff on the then North West Railway. The position was reviewed in 1945 and Services Commissions at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow were set up under Railway Board. These Commissions were introduced with two fold functions of recruiting class III staff and also tender advice to General Managers for dealing with appeals from subordinate staff on disciplinary matters.

In 1948, the Indian Railway Enquiry Committee reviewed working of commissions. While recommend-ing their permanency, suggested that the work related to appeals should be withdrawn so that commission can give undivided attention to recruitments. Chairman, Bombay Service Commission was given the supervisory role to Supervise Commissions at Calcutta, Lucknow and Madras. In 1949, due to financial constraints, a ban was imposed on recruitments on Indian Railways. Thus number of commissions was reduced to one and centrally located viz., at Bombay. In 1953-54, when Economic conditions of Indian Railways improved, four service commissions were again set up viz., at Bombay, Madras, Allahabad and Calcutta. In 1956, the Estimates committee generally approved the method of recruitment by the Constitution of the Railway Service Commissions. In 1973, to cater to the needs of the North Eastern Railway and to facilitate recruitment from the under developed areas of that region, an additional commission was set up at Muzaffarpur. In the same year a branch office of Calcutta Service Commission was opened at Ranchi. In 1978 one more additional Service Commission was set up at Secunderabad to cater to the needs of the then newly formed South Central Railway. Recruitment of staff for the needs of NF Railway was still being done through recruitment committee control by NF Railway . Thus in 1978 this job was entrusted to full fledged service commission with Head Quarters at Guwahati. Yet another service commission was opened in 1980 at Bangalore to cater to the needs of candidates from remote backward areas of Karnataka. In 1981 full-fledged service commission was opened at Danapur.

In January, 1985 Railway Service Commissions have been renamed as Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). Thus at present 19 Railway Recruitment Boards are functioning.

Railway Recruitment Control Board (RRCB) was set up in 1998 in the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) with the following objectives;

• Formulation of policy in regard to recruitment procedures.
• Monitoring the activities of all Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) including expenditure incurred for recruitment.
• Evaluating the performance of RRB’s and advise them on priorities.
• Organising and managing information system for monitoring the work done by RRBs.

The Railways are sub-divided into zones. Each zones are divisions into various departments, each controlling a particular function and each has a certain number of technical and non-technical departments. Technical departments include many engineering posts like civil, technical and mechanical engineering, signaling and telecom, and several others dealing with similar fields,  while the non-technical departments include general services such as accounts, personnel management, Railway protection Force (RPF) or security and traffic services. Here Each department has staff at various levels. The highest are the Group A officers, while the lowest in rank are the Group D staff members.

Group A

UPSC - Group A officers are recruited by UPSC

• Civil Service Examination - Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) and the Indian Railways Accounts Service (IRAS)
• Combined Engineering Service - Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Services of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) and Indian Railway Store Service (IRSS)

Other Exams are recruited by RRB.

• Station Master
• Assistant Station Master
• Loco Pilot
• Technicians
• Sr.Section Engineer
• Junior Engineer
• Technician Grade - III (Electric & Fitter & Diesel Mechanic)
• Stenographer (Hindi)
• Senior P-Way Supervisor
• Chief Depot Material Superintend
• Depot Material Superintend

In order to ensure uniformity through out the RRBs, there is a standard format for application.

The applications received are scrutinized for different eligibility criteria and a list of eligible candidates is drawn. Thereafter, examination date and centre is fixed and call letters are dispatched to eligible candidates one month in advance of the date of examination. Simultaneously the rejected applications data is published in the website for information of in-eligible candidates.

The examinations may be single stage, two stages, single stage written exam followed by skill test/aptitude test/interview depending on the nature of the posts advertised.

Candidates qualified in all stages of the examination are finally called for document verification, wherein, all the records are verified and checked with original documents.

The following documents are to be produced in original:

• All academic certificates and date of birth proof.
• Caste certificate in case of SC/ST/OBC Candidates.
• Latest caste certificate and the certificate enclosed along with the application in respect of OBC candidates.
• NOC in case of departmental candidates
• Discharge certificate in case of EXS

On satisfactory verification, the panels of names are recommended to the Chief Personnel Officer of the respective zonal Railways (which is mentioned in the notification).

All RRBs have state of art websites where following information is promptly available:

• Recruitment procedures
• Examination schedules
• Standard application form
• Standard format for caste certificate
• New Notification
• On line registration and application
• On line examination demo
• Results
• Status of Notification
• List of in eligible applicants

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.

The posts earmarked for PWD (persons with dis-abilities) are not filled through RRB. Responsibility of recruitment of PWD against the earmarked posts / vacancies rests with the respective production unit/zonal railway.

The overall policy guidelines for all Railway Recruitment Boards in India are laid down by Railway Recruitment Control Board, New Delhi.

1. Ahmedabad
2. Ajmer
3. Allahabad
4. Bangalore
5. Bilaspur
6. Bhopal
7. Bhubaneswar
8. Chandigarh
9. Chennai
10. Gorakhpur
11. Guwahati
12. Jammu & Srinagar
13. Kolkata
14. Malda
15. Mumbai
16. Muzaffarpur
17. Patna
18. Ranchi
19. Secunderabad
20. Thiruvanantha-puram

Website: http://rrcb.gov.in

Courtesy:  rrcb.gov.in