Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers
The Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers(IRSSE) is a Group A Gazetted cadre of the Government of India. The officers of this service are responsible for managing the Signals and Telecommunications Engineering Organisation of the Indian Railways.
Recruitment
The incumbents who are Graduates in Engineering are selected by the Union Public Services Commission, the apex gazetted recruitment body of the Government of India. The examination consists of Engineering Services Exam ; all India written test followed by interview for selected candidates. Based on the marks obtained, a choice can be made to join this service. The Engineering Services Examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India. The UPSC is responsible for recruiting middle and top-level bureaucrats for the Government of India.
Role and Function
Functional Role : The service abbreviated as IRSSE has the job of managing the vast Signalling and Telecommunication (S&T) infrastructure of the Indian Railways. This basically is techno-managerial in nature. Signalling principles and operating rules.
The Signalling is a function essential for Safe Train operations and Maximizing the utilization of fixed and moving assets (Train rakes, locos, Track, Over Head Power Equipment etc.). Telecom on the other hand caters to Safety related, Operational and Administrative communication needs of the Huge IR network. The Copper Cable, Optical Fibre Network and Microwave Links span several Lakh km.
General Management: Like all other IR Engineering (IRSE, IRSEE, IRSME) and Civil service Cadres (like IRTS, IRPS and IRAS), the IRSSE has the responsibility of contributing to the General management of railways. In IR, the general management posts are GM (general manager), AGM (Addl. GM), SDGM (Senior Deputy General Manager), CPRO (Chief Public Relations Officer), DGM (Deputy General Manager) etc. at Zonal level and DRM (Divisional Railway Manager), ADRM (Addl. DRM) at Divisional level. They have also to contribute for posts of CSO (Chief Safety Officers), Sr. DSO and Sr. EDPM.
Organisation
APEX LEVEL :The S&T Organization is headed at apex level (i.e. Railway Board, Ministry of Railways) by ME (Member-Engineering)who heads Engineering and S&T Departments. IRSE and IRSSE have access to this post. He is assisted by two Special Secy rank (equivalent to GM) officers v.i.z Additional Member (Signal) and AM(tele). Due to importance of Signalling & Telecommunication in the working of Railways, the 5th Central Pay Commission recommended creation of separate post of Member (Signal & Telecom)in the Railway Board. However, the recommendations are yet to be implemented.
ZONES :The Indian Railways has 17 Zonal Railways with an average Track length of about 4000 km and average staff strength of about 80,000 headed by GMs. The Zonal Organizational structure of Signal Engineers is headed by HAG/SAG grade IRSSE officer designated as CSTE (Chief S&T Engr) who is assisted by various SAG officers designated as CSE (Chief Signal Engr), CCE (Chief Communication Engr), CSTE (Planning), CSTE(Projects) and CSTE(Construction) and SG/JAG, SS & JS grade officers designated as Dy CSTEs, SSTEs and ASTEs.
DIVISIONS : Each Zone is divided into 3-7 Divisions each with an average track length of about 1000 km and staff strength of about 15000 headed overall by DRM (Divisional Railway Manager).
At this Level the Signal Engineers are Headed by a JAG/SG grade IRSSE officer designated as Sr.DSTE (Senior Divisional S&T Engineer) who is in turn assisted by SS & JS grade officers designated as DSTEs and ASTEs. An IRSSE officer starts his career as an ASTE who is the Team leader of about 100-200 staff.
Namesake
The IRSSE is not to be confused with the IRSE or Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.
Training
The initial and refresher training of IRSSE is done at Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad.
References
Centralised Training Institutes of the Indian Railways
Indian Railway Organisational Structure