The ministry requested the addition of vacancies for the IRMS recruitment of engineers in various disciplines to the existing UPSC ESE 2025. As per a memorandum issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), recruitment through UPSC will begin in 2025. In 2023, the Ministry of Railways announced to conduct railway recruitment through the Indian Railway Management Service IRMS Exam replacing the recruitment process through UPSC.
In 2019, the cabinet approved the restructuring by merging the existing 8 departments of Indian Railways into new services known as “Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS)”. From 2023 onwards, Indian Railways and UPSC with UPSC decided to recruit Group-A officers of Indian Railways through a separate examination called the Indian Railway Management Service Examination (IRMSE).
“Ministry of Railways, in consultation with UPSC and DoPT, has decided that recruitment to Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done through a specially designed examination (IRMS Examination) to be conducted by the UPSC from the year 2023 onwards,” the official statement issued by the government in 2023 reads.
DoPT deputy secretary issued a memorandum to the Railway Board chairperson stating that the department has given “in-principle approval” for recruitment through UPSC-ESE and UPSC-CSE.
