RRB Paramedical Recruitment 2026: 590 Posts, Apply by 14 Oct

Update (14 October 2026): Today is the last day to apply, up to 11:59 pm. As of this morning there’s no extension notice on rrbapply.gov.in or rrb.indianrailways.gov.in. If you’ve already submitted the form, you can still pay the fee until 16 October, and fix mistakes in the correction window from 17 to 26 October (₹250 each time). Don’t leave it to the last hour, the portal usually slows down tonight.

RRB Paramedical recruitment 2026 (CEN 05/2026) is open for 590 posts, and the last date is 14 October 2026 at 11:59 pm. If you hold a GNM or B.Sc Nursing, B.Pharm, DMLT, a radiography diploma or a similar paramedical qualification, you can apply.

Nursing Superintendent alone has 365 posts at Level 7 (₹44,900 starting basic pay). Selection is a single computer-based test (CBT), then document verification and a medical test. No interview.

Detail	Information
Organisation	Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Ministry of Railways
Notification	CEN 05/2026 (Paramedical Categories)
Total posts	590 across 9 categories
Pay	Level 3 to Level 7 (₹21,700 to ₹44,900 starting basic pay)
Age	Depends on the post, counted on 1 January 2027
Application fee	₹500 (General, OBC, EWS) / ₹250 (SC, ST, women, ExSM, PwBD, transgender, minorities, EBC)
Online application	15 September to 14 October 2026 (11:59 pm)
Last date for fee payment	16 October 2026
Correction window	17 to 26 October 2026 (₹250 each time)
Exam	Single CBT, date not announced yet
Apply at	rrbapply.gov.in
Official website	rrb.indianrailways.gov.in

RRB Paramedical 2026 vacancies (post-wise)

These are the totals for all RRBs together, straight from the notice:

Post	Pay level	Starting basic pay	Age (on 1 Jan 2027)	Posts
Nursing Superintendent	7	₹44,900	20–40	365
Dialysis Technician	6	₹35,400	20–33	1
Health & Malaria Inspector Gr II	6	₹35,400	18–33	43
Audiologist & Speech Therapist	6	₹35,400	21–30	1
Pharmacist (Entry Grade)	5	₹29,200	20–35	118
Radiographer X-Ray Technician	5	₹29,200	19–33	25
ECG Technician	4	₹25,500	18–33	4
Optometrist	4	₹25,500	18–33	2
Lab Assistant Grade II	3	₹21,700	18–33	31
Total				590

Starting basic pay is only the base. DA, HRA and other railway allowances are added on top, so the actual monthly salary is higher.

RRB-wise vacancies

You can apply to only one RRB, so this table matters more than it looks. Pick the RRB that has posts in your category.

RRB	Posts	RRB	Posts
Kolkata	98	Ranchi	21
Secunderabad	71	Patna	21
Chennai	65	Muzaffarpur	19
Mumbai	61	Siliguri	19
Gorakhpur	33	Bengaluru	18
Prayagraj	33	Bilaspur	18
Guwahati	29	Ajmer	11
Malda	28	Ahmedabad	7
Bhopal	21	Chandigarh	6
		Jammu-Srinagar	6

RRB Thiruvananthapuram has no vacancies in this notice. Some RRBs don’t have every post either. Chandigarh has no Nursing Superintendent posts, and Ahmedabad has only Pharmacist, ECG Technician and Lab Assistant. Check the post-wise split for your RRB in Annexure B of the PDF before you choose.

For readers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana: RRB Secunderabad has 53 Nursing Superintendent posts (40 under South Central Railway and 13 under South Coast Railway). That’s the second-highest after Kolkata.

Eligibility: qualification for each post

You must have the full qualification by 14 October 2026. If you’re still waiting for your final result, the notice says clearly that you should not apply.

• Nursing Superintendent: Registered Nurse and Midwife with a 3-year GNM course from an Indian Nursing Council recognised institution, or B.Sc Nursing.
• Pharmacist (Entry Grade): B.Pharm (Allopathic) or Pharm.D, and registration as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act, 1948.
• Health & Malaria Inspector Gr II: B.Sc with Chemistry, plus a 1-year Health/Sanitary Inspector diploma or an NCVT trade certificate in Health Sanitary Inspector.
• Radiographer X-Ray Technician: 10+2 with Physics and Chemistry plus a 2-year diploma in Radiography / X-Ray Technician / Radiodiagnosis Technology. Several B.Sc radiography and imaging degrees are also accepted.
• Lab Assistant Grade II: 10+2 Science plus DMLT (at least 1 year, full time), or a B.Sc in Medical Lab Technology.
• ECG Technician: 10+2 or a science degree with a certificate, diploma or degree in ECG or cardiology technology (at least 1 year).
• Optometrist: B.Sc Optometry or a 3–4 year Ophthalmic Technician diploma, with council registration.
• Dialysis Technician: B.Sc plus a Haemodialysis diploma or 2 years of haemodialysis experience. B.Sc Dialysis Technology also works.
• Audiologist & Speech Therapist: BASLP with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) registration.

Pharmacist (Entry Grade) is the second-biggest post with 118 vacancies. Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture / Rawpixel, CC0

Age relaxation

Age is counted on 1 January 2027. The main relaxations on the upper limit:

Category	Relaxation
SC / ST	5 years
OBC (non-creamy layer)	3 years
PwBD	10 years (UR/EWS), 13 (OBC), 15 (SC/ST)
Ex-servicemen	3 / 6 / 8 years after deducting service

Serving railway Group C staff, and widowed or divorced women, get separate higher limits. Those are listed in Para 5.2 of the notice.

Medical standard

Each post has a medical standard (B1, C1 or C2), mainly about eyesight. Nursing Superintendent and ECG Technician need C1. Pharmacist needs C2. Radiographer, Lab Assistant, Optometrist, Dialysis Technician and Audiologist need B1, which is the strictest of the three and includes colour vision and night vision tests. If you fail the medical, you don’t get a different post instead, so check this before you apply.

Application fee

Category	Fee	Refund after you write the CBT
General / OBC / EWS	₹500	₹400
SC, ST, women, transgender, ExSM, PwBD, minorities, EBC	₹250	₹250 (full)

The refund goes only to the bank account linked to your Aadhaar, minus bank charges. If you apply and then skip the exam, you don’t get anything back.

Selection process and exam pattern

1. CBT (one stage only): 100 questions, 90 minutes, objective type.
2. Document verification: candidates equal to the number of vacancies (1:1) are called, by merit.
3. Medical examination.

Section	Questions	Marks
Professional ability (your subject)	70	70
General Awareness	10	10
Arithmetic, General Intelligence & Reasoning	10	10
General Science (up to Class 10)	10	10
Total	100	100

There’s negative marking of 1/3 mark per wrong answer. The minimum qualifying marks are 40% for UR and EWS, 30% for OBC and SC, and 25% for ST. You can write the exam in English, Hindi or 13 regional languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

The 1:1 shortlisting is the part people miss. There’s no extra list of 2 or 3 times the vacancies for document verification, so your CBT rank has to be inside the vacancy count of your chosen RRB.

How to apply for RRB Paramedical 2026

1. Go to rrbapply.gov.in. If you made an account for any RRB exam in 2024, 2025 or 2026, log in with the same account. Don’t create a new one.
2. If you’re new, click “Create an Account”. Enter your name and date of birth exactly as on your Class 10 certificate. These details, your mobile number and your email can never be changed later.
3. Verify your identity with Aadhaar or DigiLocker. The notice warns that other photo IDs get stricter checks at every stage.
4. Open the CEN 05/2026 form, choose one RRB, and give your post and zone preferences. Posts you don’t tick are treated as “not interested”.
5. Capture a live photo through your webcam or phone’s front camera. Don’t upload an old photo. Wear dark, non-white clothes and no glasses, cap or mask.
6. Upload your signature: black ink on white paper, cursive (not capital letters), JPG, 30–49 KB.
7. SC/ST candidates who want the free train pass for the exam should upload their caste certificate (PDF, under 400 KB).
8. Submit, then pay the fee online by UPI, card or net banking. Your application is accepted only after payment, and the last date for payment is 16 October 2026.

Stuck? The official helpline is rrb.help@csc.gov.in or 9592001188 / 0172-5653333 (10 am to 5 pm, working days). You can also apply through your nearest Common Service Centre (CSC).

Should you apply?

If you’re a GNM or B.Sc Nursing holder under 40, honestly, yes. 365 Nursing Superintendent posts at Level 7 is a good number for railways, and the exam is 70% your own nursing subjects. That suits people who studied seriously in college more than people who only practise general aptitude.

Pharmacists should apply too. 118 posts is decent, though they’re spread thinly across RRBs. Check the RRB table first.

For the small posts, think about it carefully. There’s 1 Dialysis Technician post (at Chennai), 1 Audiologist post (at Chandigarh) and 2 Optometrist posts (both at Patna). If you don’t live near that RRB, remember the notice says no transfer request is even registered for the first 5 to 10 years.

Two common mistakes to avoid:

• Applying twice “to be safe”. Both get rejected and you can be banned from all RRB exams.
• Typing a name or date of birth different from your Class 10 certificate. It can’t be fixed later, not even in the correction window.

What happens next

The CBT date hasn’t been announced yet. As a rough guide, in the previous cycle (CEN 03/2025, 434 posts) the CBT happened several months after applications closed. Use the gap to revise your core subjects.

After you apply, watch for the application status, then the exam city slip and the admit card. In recent RRB exams, the city slip came about 10 days before the exam and the admit card about 4 days before. Everything will be on rrb.indianrailways.gov.in. Ignore “admit card links” shared on WhatsApp.

Looking at other jobs with deadlines this month? See Supreme Court JCA 2026 (250 posts, apply by 28 October) and APPSC Group 1 2026 (apply by 27 October).