Indian Railways successfully concludes mega recruitment of Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians ; joining letters issued

New Delhi: Indian Railways has successfully concluded Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs) and Technicians recruitment. Under one of the largest such exercises in the world, as many as 47.45 Lakhs candidates had registered for over 64,000 posts of ALPs and Technicians, according to the Ministry of Railways' statement.

Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) had invited online applications against Centralized Employment Notification from February 3 to March 31, 2018. 

The scheme of selection consisted of three-stages computer-based tests followed by medical examination and document verification of shortlisted candidates. The medical examination is considered to be one of the stringent medical examinations considering the level of distant vision/colour vision and alertness required from a Loco Pilot. 

Panel of selected candidates has been approved for 56,378 candidates (26968 ALPs, 28410 Technicians) out of 64371 vacancies (27795 ALPs, 64371 Technicians). The Railway board has also issued appointment letters to 40,420 candidates (22223 ALPs, 18197 Technicians). 

Training of newly recruited 19,120 candidates (10123 Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs), 8997 Technicians) will resume as soon as COVID lockdown related measures ease out. Training process take 17 weeks for ALPs, six months for Technicians.

Training includes class room training followed by field training followed by Testing of the competence before deployment on working post. Since training is given batch wise considering the capacity constraints of class room, hostel, library, instructors, etc. It has to be done in a phased manner by optimum utilization of training resources.

The selected candidates were issued joining letters before lockdown but some candidates could not join due to outbreak of coronavirus and COVID-19 lockdown.

All newly recruited employees will be given appointment in Railway as per the due procedure in a phased manner. The training of fresh appointees is required because Railway is an operational department and safety of train operations is paramount. 

Due to corona outbreak, all form of training has been suspended to follow the social distancing norms and in order to limit the pandemics. Training will resume as and when the situation permits, said the statement.

Notably, the RRBs were entrusted with the responsibility for Medical examination for all posts, earlier conducted by Zonal Railways. Accordingly, document verification and Medical examination started from June 16 to August 20, 2019 for about 90,000 candidates (including 50% standby candidates).