Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers

2021-06-16T17:57:41Z

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The Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME) is one of the group 'A' [[Government of India|central engineering service]] of the Indian railways. The officers of this service are responsible for managing the [[Mechanical Engineering]] Division of the [[Indian Railways]].IRSME officers was drawn from the '''Combined Engineering Service Examination (ESE)''' conducted by [[Union Public Service Commission]]. All appointments to the Group 'A' services are made by the President of India.[7]

==Recruitment==
The recruitment to the cadre is done through two sources

* The [[Indian Engineering Services|Engineering Services Exam]] exam
* The [[Special Class Railway Apprentice]] exam '''(Merged with Engineering Service Examination)'''
Conducted for the selection of top ranking officials at the government of India (GROUP A).
Both of these selection exams are conducted by the [[Union Public Service Commission]] (UPSC) of India. The UPSC is responsible for recruiting middle and top-level [[Public Service|Public Servants]] , [[Engineer|Engineers]]
, [[Physician|Physicians]] , ([[Law|Lawyers,Legal Specialists and Judiciaries]]), [[Natural Resource|Natural Resource Professionals]] etc and other such '''professionals''' for the Government of India.

==Role and Function==
The main areas of responsibility

** Motive Power availability
** Crew Management
** Rolling Stock Management
** Traffic restoration in case of accidents
* Production Units - Locomotives, Coaches, Wheel sets, etc.
* Repair and Manufacturing workshops

This organisation was central to all [[rolling stock]] operations when the only modes of traction were [[Locomotive#Steam|Steam Locomotives]] and [[Locomotive#Diesel-electric|Diesel Electric Locomotives]]. With the use of electric traction on the trunk routes, the responsibility of traction operations has been shared with the Electrical Department.

All the coaches and wagons are maintained by the Mechanical Department. The air-conditioning part of the coaches on the system was maintained by the Electrical Department. A Railway Board order to bring the entire rolling stock under ''unified maintenance'' of the Mechanical Department in 2003 was held in abeyance under pressure from Electrical Department Unions.

This has been adopted in 2016 wherein all locomotives (electric & diesel) including crew is now under electric department. The entire rolling stock maintenance including MEMU and train lighting of coaches is now under mechanical department.
Accordingly, at Railway Board level post of MEMBER MECHANICAL is redesignated as MEMBER ROLLING STOCK.

===Train Operations===
The responsibilities and assignments of train operations are loosely referred to as ''Open Line''. A great deal of emphasis is placed on open line experience. Indeed, there are few cases of people who have succeeded in the organisation without a significant tenures on the ''Open Line''.

From a general public's point of view the most exciting tasks are related to accident relief and traffic restoration. IRSME is responsible for designing, acquiring / building and maintenance of the accident relief infrastructure and organisation. In times of emergency, the appropriate officer is responsible for mobilising the Accident Relief Medical Equipment (ARME) and [[Accident Relief Trains]] (ART). Accidents are times of great stress and anxiety. Inquiries and investigation into the cause can carry on for months after a [[:Category:Railway accidents in India|major accident]].

===Production Units===
The Indian Railways does a great deal of manufacturing and would rival any other engineering house in India. The overall manufacturing is split between the Production Units (managed independently) and the zonal workshops ([[Indian Railway Organisygigiugroutture8turational Structure|managed by the zonal Railways]])

===Repair and Manufacturing===
The zonal railways have workshops that manufacture and repair equipment. These workshops can be very large (e.g. [[Kharagpur]] workshop has 12000 workers and is spread over {{convert|150|acre|km2}} with 11 km of roads inside the premises). It is only the [[Indian Railways organisational structure|organisational structure]] that prevents them from being called Production Units.

==Organisation==

The IRSME is headed by a Member (Mechanical) in the [[Railway Board]] ([[Ministry of Railways (India)|Ministry of Railways]]). Member (Mechanical) is better known by the acronym ''MM'', now Railway Board has redesignated as MEMBER ROLLING STOCK ( MEMBER (RS)).

In each of the zones the organisation is headed by a Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer. The PCME reports to the General Manager of the Railway. The office of the Member (Mechanical) of the Railway Board guides the PCME on technical matters and policy.

At the divisional level the Sr Divisional Mechanical Engineers head the organisation. The Sr DME reports to the Divisional Railway Manager of the Division. Technical supervision is provided by the zonal Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer.
at entry level ADME (Assistant Divisional Mechanical Engineer) commands 50-150 staff and 10-25 trains;

Workshops are headed by Chief Works Managers. Since workshops are managed by the zonal Railways, the CWMs report to the PCME.

Production Units, the manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways, are managed directly by the ministry. The General Managers of the PUs report to the Railway Board. The Production Units are
* [[ Marathwada Rail coach factory]], [[Latur]]
* [[Banaras Locomotive Works]], [[Varanasi]]
* [[Chittaranjan Locomotive Works]], [[Chittaranjan]]
* [[Diesel-Loco Modernisation Works]], [[Patiala]]
* [[Integral Coach Factory]], [[Chennai]]
* [[Rail Coach Factory]], [[Kapurthala]]
* [[Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli]]
* [[Wheel & Axle Plant]], [[Bangalore]]
* [[Rail Spring Karkhana]], [[Gwalior]]
* Rail Wheel Plant, Bela, Chhapra.

==See also==
[[Jamalpur Gymkhana]]

[[Centralised Training Institutes of the Indian Railways]]

[[Indian Railways organisational structure]]

[[Indian Engineering Service]]

==External links==
* [http://irsme.nic.in Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers]

{{Public Services of India}}

[[Category:Indian Engineering Services|Mechanical Engineers]]
[[Category:Indian Railways Services|Mechanical Engineers]]

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Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers