Against the 340 vacancies for the job of a licenced porter under the Ambala Division of Railways, 929 applications have been received.

Interestingly, though licensed porters cannot claim any right for employment with Railways and their licences can be revoked any time, of the 929 applicants, many are law and management graduates, some post graduates, even though the minimum qualification to apply is mere Class VIII.

“We are examining the applications. A special committee has been formed under the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager for the process. Among the applicants, many are graduates and post graduates. Surprisingly, there are even law and management graduates,” said Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala Division, H K Jaggi.  

The Division had invited applications from ‘able-bodied’ persons to work as licenced porters at 17 of the total 136 stations under the Ambala Division spread across five states and one Union Territory. The last date for applying was October 16.

After the scrutiny, short-listed applicants will be called for a Physical Efficiency Test (PET), in which male applicants will be required to cover a distance of 1500 m in seven minutes and female applicants a distance of 400 m in three minutes.

The maximum vacancies for the job of porters are at Ambala Cantonment (92) followed by Saharanpur (79) and Bathinda (54). Kalka and Roopnagar stations have the lowest vacancies—- two each.    

Vacancies at other stations are Jagadhri (20), Patiala (18) Chandigarh (17), Dhuri (13), Rajpura (8), Sirhind (8), Khanna (4), SASN Mohali (5), Ambala City (5 ), Abohar (5), Nangaldam (4) and Una Himachal (4).