RRB Paramedical Recruitment 2026: 590 Posts for Nurses, Pharmacists and 7 Other Roles (CEN 05/2026)

RRB Paramedical Recruitment 2026 has 590 posts under CEN 05/2026, and 365 of them are for Nursing Superintendents. The online form closes at 11:59 PM on 14 October 2026. You can apply to only one RRB, and that choice decides which posts you can get. Pharmacists with only a D.Pharm cannot apply this time.

Nine posts in RRB Paramedical Recruitment 2026

By category, the 590 posts are UR (unreserved) 255, SC 106, ST 69, OBC 113 and EWS 46. That adds up to 589. The last post is a backlog post for a candidate with a locomotor disability, at RRB Ranchi. You may also see “560 posts” on some websites. The detailed notice gives a total of 590.

The numbers are provisional and can change. You serve in the railway zone you are given. A request for transfer to another railway is not considered until you have served 5 to 10 years.

434 posts in 2025, 590 now, and D.Pharm dropped

• Posts went up from 434 in CEN 03/2025 to 590. Nursing Superintendent rose from 272 to 365, and Radiographer from 4 to 25.
• Audiologist and Optometrist posts are new.
• D.Pharm is no longer accepted for Pharmacist.
• More degrees now count for Dialysis Technician, Radiographer and Lab Assistant.
• The fee refund goes only to your Aadhaar-linked bank account. In 2025 you typed in your bank details.

In 2025, RRB extended the last date by 10 days. No extension has been announced for CEN 05/2026, so don’t count on one.

Pick your RRB carefully: it decides which posts you can get

You choose one RRB and then list your post and zone preferences inside it. You can never change the RRB, not even in the correction window. Do not apply twice, even to the same RRB. If you do, all your forms are rejected and you can be barred from future RRB exams.

The posts are spread very unevenly:

• Nursing Superintendent: none at RRB Ahmedabad, Ajmer or Chandigarh. The most posts are at Kolkata (74), Secunderabad (53), Mumbai (33), Chennai (27) and Gorakhpur (24).
• Pharmacist: available at all 20 RRBs that have posts, with the most at Chennai (15), Mumbai (12) and Kolkata (10).
• Dialysis Technician: 1 post, at RRB Chennai, and only for EWS.
• Audiologist: 1 post, at RRB Chandigarh, UR.
• Optometrist: both posts are at RRB Patna.
• ECG Technician: 1 post each at Ahmedabad, Chennai, Guwahati and Jammu-Srinagar.
• RRB Thiruvananthapuram has no vacancy in this CEN at all.

RRB totals, largest first: Kolkata 98, Secunderabad 71, Chennai 65, Mumbai 61, Gorakhpur 33 and Prayagraj 33. Next come Guwahati 29, Malda 28, Bhopal 21, Patna 21, Ranchi 21, Muzaffarpur 19 and Siliguri 19. The rest are Bengaluru 18, Bilaspur 18, Ajmer 11, Ahmedabad 7, Chandigarh 6, Jammu-Srinagar 6 and Bhubaneswar 5.

List every post you are eligible for and willing to take. If you leave a post out, RRB treats it as “not willing”, and you cannot add it later. RRBs can also place you in a zone you did not choose, if they need to for administrative reasons.

RRB paramedical qualification: no D.Pharm, and ANM alone is not enough

Your final result must be out by 14 October 2026. If you are still waiting for it, you cannot apply.

• Nursing Superintendent: a registered nurse and midwife with a 3-year GNM course from a school recognised by the Indian Nursing Council, or a B.Sc Nursing. An ANM certificate on its own is not enough.
• Pharmacist: B.Pharm (allopathic) or Pharm.D, plus registration as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act, 1948. D.Pharm is not listed. The 2025 notice accepted it, so pages that copied the old notice still show it.
• Health and Malaria Inspector: B.Sc with Chemistry, plus a one-year Health or Sanitary Inspector diploma or the NCVT certificate for it.
• Lab Assistant: 12th Science plus DMLT, or a full-time certificate course in medical lab technology of at least one year. 12th Science plus a B.Sc in Medical Lab Technology also counts.
• Radiographer: 12th with Physics and Chemistry plus a 2-year diploma in radiography or X-ray technology. Several B.Sc radiography and imaging degrees are also accepted.
• ECG Technician: 12th or a science degree plus a certificate, diploma or degree in ECG or cardiology technology. A certificate must be at least one year long.
• Optometrist: B.Sc Optometry or a 3 to 4 year Ophthalmic Technician diploma, plus registration with the council.
• Dialysis Technician: B.Sc plus a haemodialysis diploma or two years of haemodialysis training or work. A B.Sc in Dialysis Technology also counts.
• Audiologist: BASLP plus registration with the Rehabilitation Council of India.

RRB paramedical age limits and the birth date rule

Age is counted on 1 January 2027, and the notice gives exact birth date windows. For the 18 to 33 posts, a UR or EWS candidate must be born between 2 January 1994 and 1 January 2009. For Nursing Superintendent (20 to 40), a UR or EWS candidate must be born between 2 January 1987 and 1 January 2007. So a UR or EWS candidate who turns 33 on or before 1 January 2027 is out of the 18 to 33 posts.

Ex-servicemen deduct their service from their age and then get 3 years (OBC 6, SC and ST 8). If you qualify on more than one ground, you get the largest one only, not the total. SC, ST and OBC candidates who apply against UR posts get no age relaxation.

Your OBC certificate must be in the central format. It must be issued between 1 April 2026 and 14 October 2026, and your caste must be on the central OBC list.

PwBD candidates should check which posts suit their disability. Nursing Superintendent and ECG Technician are not open to candidates with a visual or hearing disability. Low vision is accepted only for Health and Malaria Inspector and Audiologist. Hearing disability is not accepted for Audiologist. If you need a scribe, add the scribe’s details from 27 to 31 October 2026. Your scribe must first register on rrbapply.gov.in.

Fee for CEN 05/2026 and how the refund works

Being OBC or EWS does not by itself cut the fee. EBC here means a family income below Rs 50,000 a year, and it is not the same as OBC, EWS or a state’s “Extremely Backward Class”. To pay Rs 250 as EBC, you need an EBC certificate, a BPL card or an Izzat MST issued on or before 14 October 2026. Show the original at document verification, or your form will be rejected. Minority candidates who pay Rs 250 must give an affidavit at document verification.

The refund comes only if you appear in the CBT, and only into the bank account linked to your Aadhaar. Bank charges are deducted. A rejected or incomplete form gets no refund. Pay the fee online by 16 October 2026.

The correction window is 17 to 26 October 2026, at Rs 250 each time, and that fee is not refunded. If you switch from a Rs 250 category to a Rs 500 one, you also pay the Rs 250 difference. Your name, date of birth, gender, mobile, email and chosen RRB can never be changed.

RRB paramedical in-hand salary, Level 3 to Level 7

The notice gives only the starting basic pay. We worked out the monthly figure with the current railway rates:

Take a Nursing Superintendent in a city like Kolkata. Basic Rs 44,900 + DA Rs 26,940 + HRA Rs 13,470 + TA Rs 5,760 + nursing allowance Rs 9,000 = Rs 1,00,070. After the 10% pension contribution of Rs 7,184, that is about Rs 92,900.

DA is the Dearness Allowance, HRA the House Rent Allowance and TA the Transport Allowance. We used DA of 60% from 1 January 2026, from Railway Board order RBE No. 34/2026 of 24 April 2026. HRA is 30%, 20% or 10% by city class, as per the Railway Board letter of 4 June 2024. Transport Allowance is at the central rates. The nursing allowance comes from Railway Board order RBE 166/2017, which gives it to registered nurses working in railway hospitals. It is Rs 9,000 a month now that DA is above 50%.

These are estimates before income tax and small group scheme deductions. If you get a railway house, your HRA may stop, and your in-hand pay would be lower. Other posts may get a patient-care allowance depending on the posting, so we have left that out.

70 of the 100 CBT questions are from your own subject

Selection has three steps: a single computer-based test, document verification and a medical exam. The CBT has 100 questions for 100 marks in 90 minutes:

• Your own subject (nursing, pharmacy, lab work and so on): 70 questions
• General awareness: 10
• Arithmetic and reasoning: 10
• General science: 10

A wrong answer costs one-third of a mark. To qualify, you need 40% (UR and EWS), 30% (OBC and SC) or 25% (ST). You can take the test in English, Hindi or one of 13 other languages. RRB calls one candidate per vacancy, RRB-wise, to document verification, so there is no extra margin. If two candidates tie, the older one ranks higher. The CBT date is not announced yet. The city slip comes about 10 days before the exam and the e-call letter about 4 days before.

Every post has a medical standard, and there is no other job if you fail it. Lab Assistant, Radiographer, Optometrist, Dialysis Technician and Audiologist posts need the B-1 standard, which includes colour vision and night vision tests. There is no running or physical test.

Live photo, signature and RRB choice on rrbapply.gov.in

1. Open rrbapply.gov.in. If you already have an RRB account from 2024, 2025 or 2026, log in with it. Your name, parents’ names and date of birth must match your 10th certificate exactly.
2. Take the live photo on your webcam or phone camera, without glasses, cap or mask. Do not photograph an old photo, or your form will be rejected.
3. Upload your signature as a JPG of 30 to 49 KB, signed in black ink on white paper.
4. Choose your one RRB, then list your zones and every post you are willing to take.
5. Submit by 14 October and pay by 16 October 2026.

If you already work for the government, a public sector company (PSU) or the railways, you will need a no-objection certificate from your employer at document verification. For help with the form, email rrb.help@csc.gov.in or call 9592001188 or 0172-5653333 (10 AM to 5 PM on working days).

If you applied for the RRB Technician CEN 02/2026 or the RRB Section Controller CEN 03/2026, log in with that same rrbapply.gov.in account. For nursing and pharmacy jobs outside the railways, see our healthcare jobs list. Every RRB notice we cover is on the railway jobs page.

✍️ Published byLokesh Rathore

Lokesh Rathore is a content writer with over 4 years of experience covering Government Jobs, Sarkari Result, Admit Card and Sarkari Yojana. He turns complex official notifications into clear, accurate and easy-to-follow updates for job seekers across India - with every post cross-checked against official government sources.

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