The Indian Railways Service of Engineers (IRSE) is one of the oldest group 'A' central engineering services recruited through the engineering services examination of the Union Public Service Commission. The officers of this service are responsible for administering the

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

organisation of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

Recruitment

The recruitment to the IRSE is done through the

Engineering Services Examination The Engineering Services Examination (ESE) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to recruit officers for the services which cater to the technical functions of the Government of India. It is a three-stage competitive examin ...

exam. The selected candidates of civil engineering join IRSE and are finally inducted into the railways after one and a half years of training to manage the fixed infrastructure assets of Indian Railways. The selection exam is conducted by the

Union Public Service Commission The Union Public Service Commission ( ISO: ), commonly abbreviated as UPSC, is India's premier central recruitment agency for recruitment of all the Group 'A' officers under Government of India. It is responsible for appointments to and exam ...

(UPSC) of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The UPSC is responsible for recruiting middle and top-level

bureaucrats A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", w ...

for the Government of India.

Role and function

The Civil engineering department of Indian Railways is managed by IRSE cadre which is one of the oldest services of India. These officers are responsible for the maintenance of all fixed assets of Indian railways, i.e. Track, Bridges, Buildings, Roads, Water supply, land etc. Those fixed assets are 45% of the total assets of Indian Railways. In addition to maintenance of existing assets, IRSE officers are responsible for the construction of new assets such as new lines, gauge conversion, doubling and other expansion and developmental works in Railways. They are also responsible for the safety and punctuality of Indian Railways. Recruitment to service is done on the basis of "Engineering Services" examination conducted by UPSC every year in January. The number of new recruits varies each year. Presently, intake is about 45 probationers per year. An aspirant is not necessarily a Civil Engineering graduate. Indeed he needs to appear for the Civil Engineering stream in Engineering services exam and become qualified. After Recruitment, the probationer is given 18 months' intensive training in various Railways establishments under the guidance of Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEN), Pune. A young probationer, after 18 months of rigorous and multi-dimensional training, is posted as Assistant Divisional Engineer (ADEN) which has historically been called AEN (Assistant Engineer) and can rise up to Chairman Railway Board, ''ex officio'' Principal Secretary to Govt of India. Normally, all the IRSE officers rise up to a minimum level of Additional General Manager or Principal Chief Engineer or Chief Administrative Officer (Construction) rank in railways which is equivalent to Additional Secretary to the Govt. of India. The civil engineering department, at the railway board level, is headed by Member Infrastructure (''ex officio'' Secretary to the Govt. of India) which is the highest specialized post for an IRSE officer. Theoretically, an IRSE officer is on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year .

Organisation

There are about 1958 serving officers in the IRSE. The management of department has three levels.

Apex level

This level dictates major policies pertaining to India’s rail infrastructure. At its helm at the Ministry/Railway Board level is the M-Infra (Member-Infrastructure) & ''ex-officio'' Secretary to the Government of India, who works in tandem with dedicated Special Secretary to the Government of India ranking Additional Members for Civil Engineering, Works, Bridges, Station Development, and Land & Amenities in addition to Principal Executive Directors and Executive Directors holding the rank of Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary to the Govt of India respectively.

Zone level

The Indian Railways has 18 Zonal Railways with an average track length of about 4000 km and average staff strength of about 80,000 headed by GMs. The Zonal Organizational structure of Engineering department is headed by the Principal Chief Engineer (PCE) ranked equivalent to an Additional Secretary in the Union Govt, with various designated Chief Engineers (equivalent to Joint Secretaries to the Govt of India) for track, bridge, planning, track machines, general matters etc. In addition, each Zonal Railway has a construction unit headed by a Chief Administrative Officer who is ranked at par with an Additional Secretary to the Govt of India. He is responsible for major construction works such as new lines, doubling, gauge conversions etc. He works in unison with a number of chief engineers (construction), who hold the rank of Joint Secretaries to the Govt of India.

Division level

Each Zone is divided into 3-7 Divisions each with an average track length of about 1000 km and staff strength of about 15000 headed overall by DRM (Divisional Railway Manager). These are basic units for execution of works. At this Level, the Engineering department is headed by Sr.DEN/C (Senior Divisional Engineer, Co-ordination). A division consists of 2 to 5 sections which are managed by a sectional Sr.DEN (Senior Divisional Engineer) or DEN (Divisional Engineer). A new probationer joins as Assistant Divisional Engineer and commands about 500 to 1000 staff spread over 200 km of jurisdiction.

Training

The initial and refresher training of IRSE is done a
Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering
Pune.

External links

thedindigulonline.com
{{Public Services of India

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the ...