With 13 lakh employees, Indian Railways is the biggest public sector enterprise in the country.Though there is regular requirement of engineers, Railways Recruitment 2016 announcement is for non techical cadre.The Railway recruitment boards have lined up 18000 vacancies under 9 post categories.Among them we shall look at Commercial apprentice, Traffic apprentice & Enquiry cum Reservation Clerk job profiles.
As per the railways recruitment notification – some important vacancies are
- 1645 Traffic Apprentice
- 703 Commercial Apprentice
- 127 Enquiry cum Reservation Clerk
While we explain about the roles of each post, you may also checkout Assistant station master job profile & Goods guard job profile.
Commercial Apprentices Job Profile
These people are posted in the commercial department, which is responsible for all the revenue generating activities of Indian Railways.
They are involved in creating strategies to improve earnings, fix rates & fares for all the services provided to the business & trading public.
Commercial apprentices normally undergo training for two years during which they are trained in various divisions of the dept such as booking, claim, inspection etc.,
On completion of training, they shall be designated as Inspectors (Commercial, Claims, Rates) or Chief Clerk (booking, parcel or goods)
As per the current payscale, the commercial apprentice salary is Rs.27,000 (approx per month). It shall be Rs.36,000 after the implementation of 7th pay commission.
Promotion path: CA`s can rise to become Assistant Commercial Manager > CM (Divisional) > CM (Senior Division)
Traffic Apprentice Job Profile
Traffic Apprentices are posted in Operations (traffic) department, which takes care of movement of trains, make proper use of the available resources that include locomotives, signals, tracks & other equipments which facilitate smooth functioning of railways.
Traffic apprentices are provided extensive training in all roles that come under this dept to gain all-round experience.
They would be responsible for regulating the trains keep in view the traffic ahead in those lines.
Since you have to be always correct while charting the train route or pass information about the train location incase of emergencies, the job is quite stressful.
The traffic apprentice salary according to their current scale is Rs.27,000 /month (take home including allowances). It could increase to Rs.36,000 after the 7th pay commission.
TA`s may be required to travel at times for which they claim seperate allowances.Hence their salary could be slightly higher than CA.
Promotion path: On confirmation, they will be initially designated as Traffic Inspector, Station Master or Train/ Section Controller. Further growth could elevate them to Deputy Station Superintendents, Chief Controller or Supervisors in appropriate depts.
They are also eligible to move over to administration side after some years of experience where there is a possibility to get promoted as Assistant Operations Manager, Operations Manager (divisional) etc.,
Enquiry cum Reservation Clerks
Nobody can board a train without a ticket & the people who issue tickets at railway stations are Enquiry cum Reservation clerks (ECRC) who are also part of the Commercial department.
Their job profile is to provide information to enquiring travelers & issue tickets to rail passengers.
The job of ECRC is purely desk work & mostly shift based (day only).Hence its well suited for ladies.But they have their own set of challenges too.
During heavy workload, these clerks may not be able to take leave & will have to work beyond normal hours too.
The initial Enquiry cum Reservation clerk salary is around Rs.18,000 /month (take home). After the 7th pay commission, ECRC would get approximately Rs.25,000.
Promotions: Enquiry cum Reservation clerk can grow up the ladder into Reservation Supervisor Grade I > Grade II
