Training of Newly Selected Assistant Loco Pilots to Restart Post Lockdown

Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway said that it will restart the training of Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) candidates after the restrictions in force due to Lockdown on account of CoVID-19 pandemic are lifted completely.

The notification for ALP vacancies was released in February 2018, taking into account anticipated vacancies upto March, 2021. Examinations were conducted in January, 2019 by Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB), Bhubaneswar and Secunderabad.

Process of Document Verification as well as Medical Examination was completed between June – December, 2019.

Panel of candidates were received from RRBs Bhubaneswar and Secunderabad between August,2019 to January, 2020 and accordingly these were assigned to three divisions of Khurda Road, Waltair and Sambalpur.

Training was started in time and a total of 951 of 2702 candidates were sent for training,i.e. 523 from Khurda Road, 260 from Sambalpur and 168 from Waltair Division.

Out of 951 candidates in training, 246 had completed but in the meantime Lockdown was declared by Government of India due to CoVID-19 outbreak so training of the remaining candidates had to be halted temporarily. Assistant Loco Pilot is one of the most important safety category posts in Railways because safe running of trains is dependent on them, so ALPs can join working posts only after completion of their training.

It is pertinent to mention here that, ECoR shall restart the training of remaining empanelled candidates as soon as lockdown is lifted and Government of India guidelines permit it. Age shall not be a bar for the empanelled candidates. They shall be called for training as per RRB merit, availability of training slot and requirement against vacancies.