The Ministry of Railways in consultation with DoPT has decided that recruitment to Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done through a specially designed examination (IRMS Examination). The IRMS examination will be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) from 2023 onwards.
As per PIB, the IRMS examination will be a two-tier examination- a preliminary screening examination, followed by a main written examination and interview.
For screening suitable number of candidates for the 2nd stage of the examination, viz, IRMS (Main) Written Examination, all eligible candidates shall be required to appear in Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination and suitable number of candidates will be screened for IRMS (Main) Examination.
The IRMS (Main) Examination will consist of 4 papers of conventional essay type in the subjects mentioned below:
Qualifying papers
Paper A- One of the Indian languages to be selected by the candidate from the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. 300 marks
Paper B - English 300 marks
Papers to be counted for merit Optional Subject ‐
Paper 1: 250 marks
Optional Subject ‐ Paper 2: 250 marks
Personality Test: 100 marks
List of optional subjects from which a candidate is to choose only one optional subjects: Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering Commerce and Accountancy.
“The syllabi for the aforesaid qualifying papers and optional subjects will be same as those for the Civil Services Examination (CSE),” the PIB report said.
Other Details
The common candidates of Civil Services (Main) Examination and IRMS (Main) Examination may opt for any of the aforesaid optional subjects for both these examinations or choose separate optional subjects for these Examinations (one for the CSE (Main) and one for the IRMSE (Main) as per the schemes of these two examinations).
The language medium and scripts for the qualifying papers and optional subjects (for question papers and writing answers) will be same as those for the CSE (Main) Examination. The age limits and number of attempts for various categories will be same as those for the CSE.
Minimum Educational Qualification -
Degree in Engineering / Degree in Commerce/ Chartered Accountancy, from a University incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other Educational Institutes established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.
An indent for IRMSE (150 nos) is being placed on UPSC which will consist of following numbers from the four optionals; Civil (30) Mechanical (30) Electrical (60) and Commerce and Accountancy (30).
Declaration of Results -
UPSC will draw and declare one list of finally recommended candidates from the four disciplines in order of merit. Since the proposed examination scheme envisages utilizing the Civil Services (P) Examination for screening of candidates for the IRMS (Main) Exam and further envisages common qualifying language papers and some optional subjects papers of CSE for IRMSE, both the Preliminary part and the Main written part of both these examinations will be held simultaneously.
The IRMSE will be notified simultaneously with the CSE.
Schedule
As per the annual programme of the examination of the UPSC for the year 2023, the Civil Services (P) Examination – 2023 is scheduled to be notified and held on 01.02.2023 and 28.05.2023 respectively.
Since the CSP Exam – 2023 will be utilized for screening the candidates for IRMS (Main) Examination also, the IRMS Examination -2023 will be notified following the same schedule, the PIB reported added.