On the basis of a competitive examination conducted by the UPSC, on the name of Special Class Railway Apprentices (SCRA) Examination, direct Recruitment to the Special Class Railway Apprentices' is made to recruit candidates for the Mechanical Department of the Indian Railways. This is a class-I service and these officials constitute the top rung cadre of the mechanical wing of the Indian Railways.
For Recruitment to the Indian Railway Service Mechanical Department, there is a dual method, one is by Combined Engineering Service Examination and the other is UPSC Special Class Railway Apprentices' Examination. Approximately, 50 percent are recruited as the Special Class Railway Apprentices through the UPSC Exam.
This examination is held once a year, generally in the month of July. Blank application forms and other particulars are published in Employment News, generally in the month of February.
Recruitment to the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) and the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) is done on the basis of the result of the Civil Services Examination (The Indian Administrative service examination) and that to the Indian Railway services of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) and Indian Railway Services Stores (IRSS) is made on the basis of the Combined Engineering Service Examination.
For Admission to the examination a candidate -
(I) Candidates must have passed in the first or second division, the Intermediate or an equivalent examination of a university or board approved by the Government of India with Mathematics and atleast one of the subjects Physics and Chemistry as subjects of the examination.
(ii) For further details, please refer Para 3 (III) of the Commission's Notice for the examination published in Employment News/Rozgar Samachar.
Candidates have to pay Rs 100 as application fee.
SC/ ST/ PH / Female candidates are exempted from the fee.
Exam pattern/ Method
Exam paper consists of the three major sections with total 600 marks.
Section 1 General ability with 200 marks which include G.K, English and Psychological questions.
Section II- Physical Sciences with 200 marks which contains the questions related to Chemistry & Physics.
Section III- Mathematics with 200 marks which will be in English medium at the diplomacy of the Commission to attach the criteria of the sectional or total cutoffs marks for the subjects.
Note
Candidates will be provided time duration of 120 minutes for each. All the papers will contain Objective Type questions which will be set in English only Marks will be deducted for every negative answer.
Candidates have to register through official website of the UPSC till November, 2019. Candidates have to download the application and fill with all related particulars.
Fee can be paid through depositing challan form/Registration Form in any State Bank of India or its associate bank's branch. Candidates can also take the benefit of SBI net banking or Visa/Master Cards candidates for making payment.