Indian Railways gives another chance to 70,000 candidates to apply again

The Railway ministry has asked these aspirants to rectify their mistakes in the application process by July 20

Indian Railways is giving a second chance to 70,000 candidates whose job applications were rejected for uploading faulty photos. The Railway ministry has asked these aspirants to rectify their mistake by July 20.

Indian Railways has received 4.8 million applications for 26,500 posts of assistant loco pilots and technicians.

"We realised that among the total applications that were found ineligible, around 127,000 candidates were found ineligible for invalid pictures. Out of the 127,000 people, now, 70,000 have been asked to make the changes in the pictures and upload them again," Rajesh Dutt Bajpai, Director Information and Publicity, Railway Board said to PTI.

An email and a message have been sent to the 70,000 applicants, who were given a second chance.

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The first phase of examination for the various posts will be conducted in September-November. The exams were postponed from May-June due to a high number of applications. The railways took time to scrutinise all the applications.

The Indian Railways will fill up over one lakh vacant posts by March-April next year.

The Railways received around 22.7 million applications for about 110,000 vacancies it had advertised.

Article Source : BS

Hate trains running late? Here's Indian Railways' worst performing division

Though Railways has made an all-out effort to prevent delays by improving the punctuality rate, Mail and Express trains are sometimes running more than 5 to 10 hours behind schedule

Howrah Division in Bengal is the worst performer as far as trains running on time is concerned, with a punctuality performance of only 34 per cent for the week ended June 3. It is closely followed by Lucknow Division with 39 per cent.

Curiously, an above 80 per cent punctuality rate is considered "reasonable" for Indian Railways, one of the largest railway systems in the world. Currently, Indian Railways' overall punctuality rate is about 65 per cent -- not an ideal situation for authorities or passengers.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has said: "At the moment, punctuality rate is 65 per cent and I am not satisfied."

Zone-wise, South East Central's punctuality performance has remained at the bottom at 44 per cent followed by North Central's 47.5 per cent, according to Railways data.

However, Bhavnagar has fared extremely well with 99.27 per cent while Sealdah Division has clocked 98.19 per cent in the week from May 28 to June 3 this year.

Delhi Division's performance is below the 65 per cent mark at 64.64 per cent, while Mumbai Division is even worse at 55.5 per cent for the same period.

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Though Railways has made an all-out effort to prevent delays by improving the punctuality rate, Mail and Express trains are sometimes running more than 5 to 10 hours behind schedule, causing much inconvenience to passengers.

Even premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto are running late in some sectors due to various reasons, including ongoing track renewal and maintenance, bridge repair and speed restrictions.

"In order to ensure safety, Railways has undertaken a massive track renewal job, replacing old and aged lines in a concerted manner," a senior official involved with safety operations told IANS. He added that track renewal is underway in almost every section.

Since track renewal is a priority now, lines are blocked for the work, which causes the trains to run slow.

The tracks fit for 110 km to 130 km per hour speed are also witnessing the slowdown effect, with even the Rajdhani service being hit.

Besides Lucknow, other divisions of the Northern Zone are also performing badly on the punctuality front with Moradabad's being a low 40.14 per cent.