Railways to recruit for IRMS through Civil Services Examination, drops plans for separate exam

The Railways ministry has decided to recruit officers for the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) through the Civil Services Examination to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for 2023, it said on Thursday.

This is in contradiction to an earlier order which stated that recruitment to the service would be done through a specially designed IRMS Examination, to be conducted by the UPSC from 2023.

”Ministry of Railways, in consultation with UPSC and DoPT, has decided that recruitment to Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done through the Civil Services Examination to be conducted by the UPSC for the year 2023,” it said in a statement.

While the ministry is tight-lipped over the reasons behind the decision, sources suggest that it was likely that it relented under pressure from officers belonging to non-engineering cadres. The IRMS Examination was seen to benefit students with an engineering or commerce background who planned to appear for the Civil Services Examination with an additional avenue open exclusively to them.