The Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) is one of the Group A central engineering services of the Government of India. The officers of this service are procurement and logistics specialists and involvement in supply contract management over Indian Railways. They are responsible for inspection, receipt, storage and issue and distribution of spares, raw materials, tools and plant and machinery. This includes planning of logistics for the transportation of material from and within various railways as well as the planners and maintainers of the intelligent warehousing with automated storage and retrieval systems on the Indian Railways. The IRSS officers undergo training at National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) for a period of 18 months which includes two months certification course at IIM Khozikhode and a foreign training.
Recruitment & Job responsibility of IRSS IRSS Officers man the senior posts of stores department and also general administrative posts of Indian Railways. The members of this group A service are recruited through the Engineering Services Examination conducted annually by the Union Public Service Commission The basic qualification for appearing in this examination is a degree in engineering and all the members belonging to this service are engineers. The Department of Personnel and Training DOPT defines it as a Technical Service. The total sanctioned strength of cadre is 542. The young officer after being intensively trained for 18 months under the guidance of National Academy of Indian Railways is posted as AMM in junior scale. The officer can rise up to chairman railway board (ex officio principal secretary to GOI). In normal course all officers rise up to the level of Additional Secretary to GOI. At the level of Railway Board the service is headed by Member (Material Management), ex-officio secretary to GOI. IRSS cadre not only caters to stores departments but contribute significantly to the general administration of Indian Railways in particular and the Government of India in general. The various ex-cadre posts held by officers of service are Chairman of Railway Board, General Manager, Divisional Railway Manager, Additional Divisional Railway Manager and Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Board. Many officers are also working on deputation to various ministries of Government of India under Central Staffing Scheme. Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) is one of the eight organized services of Indian Railways. The IRSS cadre is responsible for forecasting, planning, procurement of material, logistics management, and warehousing of Indian Railway's assets. It is also responsible for giving material support to production of railway coaches, locomotives, and railway wagons. Realization of revenue by selling of scrap is another major function of the Stores Department. This is done by means of auctions, tender sale, and staff sales. Recently all cadres of Indian Railways has been merged and IRSS functions to be carried out by Indian Railway Management Service, IRMS sub cadre stores, IRMS(stores).
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