Railway Training Institutes
Railway Training Institutes
Overview
Indian Railways runs a three-tier training infrastructure to keep its 13-lakh workforce updated. At the apex is the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara (earlier Railway Staff College). It is followed by six Centralised Training Institutes (CTIs) for specialised professional streams and 55 Zonal Training Schools (ZTSs) plus 200+ sub-centres for basic & periodic refresher courses. Every Group-A officer, irrespective of service (IRTS, IRPS, IRSE, etc.), begins his/her career with a 78-week Foundation Course at NAIR, while Group-B promotions and Group-C inductions are channelled through the CTIs and ZTSs respectively.
Key Facts & Figures
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Oldest training institute | Railway Staff College (now NAIR) – established 25-12-1930 at Dehradun, shifted to Vadodara 1952 |
| Apex training body | National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara – declared “Institute of National Importance” 2022 |
| CTIs under Railway Board | 6 (IRIMEE, IRICEN, IRITM, IRITM(L), IRIFM, IRINS) |
| Zonal Training Schools | 55 (≈ 1 per division + 1 per production unit) |
| Total residential capacity | NAIR-550, CTIs-3,100, ZTSs-12,000 trainees simultaneously |
| Annual trainee throughput | ≈ 2.5 lakh man-days (pre-Covid figure) |
| IRIMEE location | Jamalpur (Bihar) – oldest CTI (1862) |
| IRICEN location | Pune – signalling & telecomm cadre |
| IRITM location | Secunderabad – transportation & traffic |
| IRITM(L) location | Lucknow – logistics & material management |
| IRIFM location | Mumbai (Churchgate) – finance & accounts |
| IRINS location | Nasik Road – safety & inter-disciplinary courses |
| Virtual learning platform | “i-GOT” (Integrated Government Online Training) launched 2020 |
| Railway Board training cell | Director-General (Training) – ex-officio Additional Member (HRD) |
| Training budget | ≈ ₹1,200 crore per annum (2023-24 BE) |
| International trainees | 2,500+ officers from 55 Afro-Asian countries trained till date |
| ISO certification | NAIR & all CTIs are ISO 9001:2015; NAIR also ISO 14001 |
| Common training portal | www.trainingschools.indianrailways.gov.in |
Important Points
- NAIR is the only civil-service training institution outside Mussoorie/Hyderabad to be recognised as “Civil Services Training Institute” by DoPT.
- IRIMEE Jamalpur doubles as the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering and traces its origin to the first locomotive workshop (1862).
- IRICEN Pune is the nodal faculty for the world’s largest Route-Relay Interlocking (RRI) at Kharagpur.
- IRITM Secunderabad conducts the mandatory 32-week Traffic Apprentice (TA) course before posting as Assistant Operations Manager.
- IRIFM Mumbai runs the Accounts Officer Recruitment Training (AORT) – 78 weeks for directly recruited CA/CMA.
- IRINS Nasik Road is the only institute that trains running staff (Loco-pilots, Guards) on simulators complying to UIC-612 standards.
- All CTIs have tie-ups with IITs/NITs for MTech & PhD programmes under the “RailTel Academic Corridor”.
- ZTSs follow a 3-tier model – Basic (induction), Refresher (every 5 years) and promotional (selection grade).
- Trainees are paid full salary plus Daily Allowance (DA) at par with touring officials during residential courses.
- “Mission 100% Safety” (2022) mandates 15-day safety re-certification for all safety category staff at IRINS or ZTS every 3 years.
- Online module “Rail-Vidya” hosts 1,400 e-courses; completion is prerequisite for appearing in LDCE/GDCE.
- NAIR’s “Village Immersion” module requires officer-trainees to spend 10 days in a model railway village adopted under CSR.
- Women’s quota: 20% seats reserved in hostel blocks of all CTIs since 2019.
- All training institutes observe 26 November as “Manav Suraksha Diwas” (Human Safety Day) with mock drills.
- Passing certificate of CTIs is valid for 10 years; failure to undergo refresher makes an employee ineligible for promotion.
Frequently Asked in Exams
- Full form & location of all six CTIs – favourite matching-type question.
- Year of establishment & original location of NAIR.
- Which institute trains signalling engineers? (IRICEN Pune)
- Oldest training institute of Indian Railways. (IRIMEE Jamalpur)
- Name the apex training academy declared “Institute of National Importance” in 2022.
BETA
