Railways switches to centralised computer-based tests to prevent discrepancies in promotion exams

The Railway Board has decided that all departmental promotion examinations will now be through centralised examinations. According to officials aware of the development, only Computer Based Tests (CBT) will be undertaken and all zonal railways will have to make a calendar for the examinations. The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) will be empowered to conduct these exams as well.

“A high-level meeting has taken the decision to switch to centralised exams for promotions,” a senior official told ET while adding that question papers will be in highly encrypted form (256-bit encryption).

These steps have been taken after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) unearthed a departmental examination paper leak scam under the East Central Railway (ECR) at Mughal Sarai. The agency has arrested 26 Railway officials, including 17 aspirants, in the case this week and recovered Rs. 1.17 crore in cash. These amounts were reportedly collected from candidates for leaking the question papers.


These departmental candidates are presently working as loco pilots with the Indian Railways. They had allegedly paid money for an advance copy of the question paper and were caught red-handed with the copies during the raid.

“Last minute decryption will now happen only when the candidate actually logs in,” the official detailing the reforms said.

Teams conducting the exams across the country will get information about candidate just two hours before the examination.

“In the examination centres, checking and frisking of candidates will be done with Hand-held metal detectors…all mouse and key clicks to be recorded with time stamp for audit purpose,” the official said while adding there will be regular examination centre auditing by Railway teams.

Commenting on the experience of RRB in conducting large scale exams, the official said, “More than seven crore candidates have been examined through CBT without any paper leakage, impersonation, remote Log-in, and use of spy devices from 2015 onwards.”