CHENNAI: Amid severe staff shortage across several railway departments, the Indian Railways’ decision to surrender 1,906 posts in the Southern Railway has drawn stiff opposition from a section of employees.
The 1,906 posts — mostly in commercial, personnel, accounts, design and drawing, and general administration roles — are to be either surrendered or redistributed as part of the finance department’s target for Indian Railways to give up 29,608 posts nationwide during the 2026-27 financial year. Orders to this effect were issued a week ago.
While Southern Railway spokesperson has dismissed reports of the surrender, stating that the posts will be redistributed to other sectors, especially in safety categories, employee unions have argued that the move will increase the workload on employees.
According to sources, the decision comes against the backdrop of the union government’s 20-year ban on creating any new posts within the railways. Workers have been demanding an increase in staff due to electrification of railway lines, new line projects, and other safety-related works. Instead of creating new posts, the railways is surrendering existing ones while simultaneously approving a limited number of new posts in the safety category. Currently, the sanctioned strength of the Southern Railway is 96,000, of which 14,000 posts remain vacant.
R Elangovan of the Dakshin Railway Employees Union – a recognised union in the Southern Railway affiliated with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions – stated that the move is against the interests of young job seekers, the general public, and railway employees.
“When the zonal railway sought approval to fill 9,000 posts immediately, the Railway Board approved only 2,000. For a request to fill 600 loco pilot posts, approval was given for only 400,” he said.
While persistent delays in filling posts for loco pilots, guards, keymen, gatekeepers, and other safety roles increase the risk in train operations, the surrender of non-safety category posts adds to the workload of existing employees.
“The sanctioned strength of railway employees was 16.5 lakh in 1990-91; this has been reduced to 14.8 lakh in 2025-26,” Elangovan noted.
N Kanniah, general secretary of the Southern Railway Mazdoor Union, another recognised union, said, “The general manager of Southern Railway has assured us that no posts will be surrendered – only redistributed to other categories.”
A Southern Railway official explained, “Several posts have become redundant due to digitisation and modernisation initiatives in administration. For example, there used to be dedicated employees for issuing railway passes at every office; now the entire system is online. Similarly, these posts will merely be redistributed to other categories where they are needed.”