1.52 lakh safety category posts vacant, says Railways in RTI reply

Out of around 10 lakh sanctioned posts under the safety category in the Indian Railways, more than 1.5 lakh are vacant, the Railway Ministry has said in response to an application under the Right to Information Act in March. Officials, however, have said the safety of trains is of topmost priority and the railways has made significant investments in this matter in the past 10 years while also taking up many structural and systemic improvements that have had a positive impact on safe operations. Safety category posts include train drivers, inspectors, crew controllers, loco instructors, train controllers, track maintainers, station masters, pointsmen, electric signal maintainers and signalling supervisors among others. Being directly involved in the running of trains, personnel in these posts are crucial to safe train operations. "The total number of sanctioned, on roll (working) and vacant posts in safety category of Indian Railways, as available in this office, as on 01.03.2024 ..