Indian Railway Stores Service

IRSS Officers man the senior posts of stores department and also general administrative posts of Indian Railways.^[2] The members of this group A service are recruited through the Engineering Services Examination conducted annually by the Union Public Service Commission ^[3] 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^[4] 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).

At the time of independence, Indian Railways was running primarily on steam locomotives. Most of the components required for steam locomotives were made in workshops, and the components which were to be purchased, were very few. The stores requirements for track, signaling, C&W and other general items were also inadequate. As, at that time, the industrialization of country had just started, a substantial number of stores were to be imported mainly through India Supply Mission. The function of the stores department, at that time, was limited and mainly centered on storekeeping.

However, with the start of dieselisation in the 1950s and speeding up of electrification from the 1960s, the face of railways started changing. Electric locomotives, compared to steam locomotives, required more items that were sophisticated and had to be purchased. It was mainly with dieselisation and electrification, that the purchase function of railways started evolving though other changing areas, e.g. signaling, production of coaches, track laying, and maintenance activity. Apart from more purchase items, the issues such as quality and reliability of items and the firms who were supplying them also became relevant as diesel and electric locomotives required sophisticated items for which credentials and capabilities of vendors needed to be pre-assessed. Activity of approval and registration of firms thus started. As the railway system was expanding, the funds became scarce and there was an urgent need to keep inventories at optimum levels so that capital could be used elsewhere, making inventory control important. Similarly the scrap sales function also became more and more important over the years.

Purchasing and its allied activities became complex as the traffic and train services increased in number and size. Purchase activity, which was clerical in nature in earlier days, had to respond to the needs of time become professional. The 1980s and 1990s saw more types of rolling stocks and improved maintenance practices. The railway network as measured by track km remained more or less the same, the increase in traffic and customer expectation put severe constraints on all the resources like track, rolling stock sheds, and workshops. Less time became available for maintenance. From the mid-1990s, safe running of trains emerged as an important issue and compared to previous decades, and more items became essential for safe operation of trains. All these issues put severe strain on railways purchasing system.

Over the years, Indian Railways' purchases have gone manifold both in terms of value and number of items. The technical, industrial, and commercial scenario of the country has also changed significantly. There are now more standards, specifications, and accrediting bodies, and more central, state and local laws. Purchasing in today's world is done in a complex environment.

The members of the IRSS on the Indian Railways are the procurement and logistics specialists responsible for procurement of various goods and services to the tune of Rs. 25000 Crores annually, and disposal of scrap to the tune of Rs. 3000 Crores per annum in the form of auction and sale of electric and diesel locomotives, old coaches and wagons, and old bridge structures along with the rails released from the gauge conversion activities. (These figures are from the latest IR-Yearbook)

They also manage huge warehouses attached with the major coaching and wagon workshops as well as the electric and diesel locomotive sheds.

They are the logistics managers for transportation of material through the roadways.