RRB Paramedical 2026 (CEN 05/2026): 590 Posts, Last Date 14 Oct

The Railway Recruitment Boards have published the detailed notice, CEN 05/2026, for 590 paramedical posts: nurses, pharmacists, lab and radiography technicians and more, at Pay Levels 3 to 7. Applications close on 14 October 2026 at 23:59, the fee can be paid until 16 October, and you can apply to only one RRB. The selection is a single computer-based test, then document verification and a medical examination.

Apply by 14 Oct 2026, 23:59 · Fee by 16 Oct · One RRB only · Age counted on 01.01.2027 · Apply (RRB portal) · RRB website

Checked against the detailed CEN 05/2026 on 5 October 2026.

On this page: Dates · Posts and pay · Can you apply? · Which RRB? · Fee · Selection and CBT · How to apply · Rejection traps · After the CBT · Sources

Important dates

Event	Date
Online application opened	15 September 2026
Last date to submit the application	14 October 2026, 23:59
Last date to pay the fee for a submitted application	16 October 2026, 23:59
Modification window (Rs 250 per change)	17 to 26 October 2026
Scribe details, for eligible candidates	27 to 31 October 2026
CBT, document verification, medical	To be announced on the RRB websites

Today is 5 October, so you have nine days. Do not leave it to the last evening, because the notice itself warns about heavy traffic near the closing date, and RRBs are not responsible if you cannot submit in time.

The nine posts: pay, age and who can apply

Age is counted on 1 January 2027. The medical standard (B1, C1 or C2) is explained further down.

Post	Level	Initial pay (Rs)	Age	Medical	Vacancies
Nursing Superintendent	7	44,900	20 to 40	C1	365
Dialysis Technician	6	35,400	20 to 33	B1	1
Health and Malaria Inspector Gr II	6	35,400	18 to 33	C1	43
Audiologist and Speech Therapist	6	35,400	21 to 30	B1	1
Pharmacist (Entry Grade)	5	29,200	20 to 35	C2	118
Radiographer X-Ray Technician	5	29,200	19 to 33	B1	25
ECG Technician	4	25,500	18 to 33	C1	4
Optometrist	4	25,500	18 to 33	B1	2
Lab Assistant Gr II	3	21,700	18 to 33	B1	31
Total					590

Pay is the starting basic on the 7th CPC matrix. Allowances are paid as per railway rules after joining.

Can you apply? Qualifications and age

Minimum qualification, post by post

You must hold the qualification on or before 14 October 2026. Annexure A of the notice has the full wording; this is a short version.

Post	What you need
Nursing Superintendent	Registered Nurse and Midwife certificate (3-year General Nursing and Midwifery from an INC-recognised school) or B.Sc Nursing. Qualifications obtained under the Indian Nursing Council’s special concessions for ANMs, Midwives and B-grade nurses also count
Dialysis Technician	B.Sc plus a Haemodialysis diploma, or two years of satisfactory in-house haemodialysis training or experience in a reputed institution (proof required). B.Sc in Dialysis Techniques, Dialysis Technology or Renal Dialysis Technology is also accepted
Health and Malaria Inspector Gr II	B.Sc with Chemistry as a main or optional subject, plus either a one-year Health/Sanitary Inspector diploma or a one-year NTC in Health Sanitary Inspector
Audiologist and Speech Therapist	BASLP from a recognised university, with RCI registration
Pharmacist (Entry Grade)	B.Pharm (Allopathic) or Pharm.D from a Central or State Government recognised institution, registered as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act, 1948
Radiographer X-Ray Technician	10+2 with Physics and Chemistry plus a 2-year diploma in Radiography, X-Ray or Radiodiagnosis Technology. Science graduates with the diploma are preferred. Several B.Sc radiography and imaging degrees are also listed as eligible
ECG Technician	10+2 or a science degree, with a certificate, diploma or degree in ECG or cardiology technology of at least one year
Optometrist	B.Sc in Optometry or a Diploma in Ophthalmic Technician (3 to 4 years), with registration with the concerned council
Lab Assistant Gr II	10+2 in Science plus a DMLT diploma or an equivalent certificate course of at least one year, done full time and examined (conditions in Annexure A). B.Sc in Medical Lab Technology is also eligible

Age worked out for three real cases

The notice gives a date-of-birth window for each age group. Both dates are inclusive. Here is how it plays out.

Case	Calculation	Result
Nursing Superintendent (20 to 40), OBC-NCL candidate born 15 March 1985	Upper limit is 40 plus 3 years of OBC-NCL relaxation, so the birth date must be on or after 2 January 1984. 15 March 1985 is later	Eligible
Pharmacist (20 to 35), General candidate born 10 June 1991	General upper limit needs a birth date on or after 2 January 1992. 10 June 1991 is earlier	Not eligible. The same person in SC or ST (5 years of relaxation, birth date on or after 2 January 1987) is eligible
Lab Assistant (18 to 33), candidate born 20 February 2009	The lower limit needs a birth date on or before 1 January 2009. 20 February 2009 is later, so the candidate is 17 on 1 January 2027	Not eligible, even though they turn 18 soon after

Upper-age relaxations: SC and ST 5 years; OBC-NCL 3 years; PwBD 10, 13 or 15 years depending on category; Ex-Servicemen 3, 6 or 8 years after deducting service; serving Group C and erstwhile Group D railway staff with 3 years of service up to 40, 43 or 45; widowed, divorced or judicially separated women who have not remarried up to 35, 38 or 40. If you qualify on several grounds you get the largest single relaxation, not a sum. SC, ST and OBC-NCL candidates applying against unreserved vacancies get no relaxation. Your date of birth must match your matriculation or SSLC certificate; any difference leads to disqualification.

Who cannot apply

• Anyone awaiting the final result of the required qualification.
• Anyone currently debarred by an RRB or RRC, or dismissed from government or PSU service.
• Anyone who has already filed another application against this CEN.

Medical standards

Medical fitness is checked at the document verification stage for the post you opted for, and nobody gets an alternative post if unfit. In short:

Standard	Distance vision	Near vision	Also
B1	6/9, 6/12 with or without glasses (lens power within 4D)	Sn 0.6, 0.6 with or without glasses	Must pass colour, binocular, night and mesopic vision tests
C1	6/12, 6/18 with or without glasses	Sn 0.6, 0.6 with or without glasses
C2	6/12, nil with or without glasses	Sn 0.6 with or without glasses

Candidates who had LASIK may still be eligible for B1 if the surgery was at least a year ago, had no complications, residual corneal thickness is at least 425 microns, and fundus and visual acuity are normal. If you fail the first test you may be allowed one medical appeal on payment of the prescribed charges.

Which RRB to choose

You get one RRB and cannot change it later, so this is the most important decision. The tables in Annexure B split the 590 posts like this:

RRB	Total posts	RRB	Total posts
Kolkata	98	Gorakhpur	33
Secunderabad	71	Prayagraj	33
Chennai	65	Guwahati	29
Mumbai	61	Malda	28
Bhopal	21	Patna	21
Ranchi	21	Muzaffarpur	19
Siliguri	19	Bengaluru	18
Bilaspur	18	Ajmer	11
Ahmedabad	7	Chandigarh	6
Jammu-Srinagar	6	Bhubaneswar	5

How to use this:

1. Check your post first. Not every RRB advertises every post. Optometrist is only at Patna, and Audiologist is only at Chandigarh. Dialysis Technician has a single vacancy (Chennai).
2. Look at your community row. Open Annexure B for your post and RRB. A board with 40 posts may have 0 for your category.
3. Pick your zone preferences inside that RRB. If you give partial options, you are considered only for those zones and posts, and the notice says options cannot be changed later.
4. Remember the 1:1 rule. Each RRB shortlists about as many candidates as it has vacancies, so a smaller RRB usually means a tougher cut-off.

Fee, refund and the Aadhaar bank link

Category	Fee	Refund after appearing in CBT
All other candidates	Rs 500	Rs 400 (bank charges deducted)
SC, ST, Ex-Servicemen, PwBD, Female, Transgender, Minorities, EBC	Rs 250	Rs 250 (bank charges deducted)

• Payment is online only (net banking, debit or credit card, UPI). Service charges are yours.
• The refund goes only to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account. During the application you validate your Aadhaar number, and the portal shows the account linked to it for confirmation. If none is found, it sends you to the NPCI portal to link one. If you have no bank account, you can give a family member’s Aadhaar-seeded account.
• No refund for incomplete, unsubmitted or rejected applications, or if the linked account is not working. Check your account is active now.
• EBC is not OBC and not EWS. It only gives a fee concession for families with annual income under Rs 50,000. You need an EBC certificate in the notice’s format (Annexure III A), a BPL card, or an Izzat MST, valid on or before 14 October 2026, and you must enter its details while applying.
• Minority candidates claiming the concession must bring an affidavit on stamp paper to document verification.

Selection process and the CBT

1. Single-stage CBT. RRBs may hold additional CBTs if they consider it necessary.
2. Document verification (DV) for shortlisted candidates. Each RRB calls roughly as many candidates as it has vacancies, in merit order.
3. Medical examination for the post you opted for.
4. Empanelment by CBT merit, subject to DV and the medical.

Section	Questions	Marks
Professional ability	70	70
General Awareness	10	10
General Arithmetic, Intelligence and Reasoning	10	10
General Science	10	10
Total	100	100

• Time: 90 minutes, or 120 minutes for PwBD candidates eligible for a scribe.
• Negative marking: one-third of a mark for each wrong answer. Skip questions where you have no idea, because a wrong answer costs marks.
• Qualifying marks: UR and EWS 40%, OBC-NCL and SC 30%, ST 25%. PwBD candidates get a relaxation of up to 2 marks if reserved posts would otherwise go unfilled.
• Tie-break: older candidate first. If the age is the same, alphabetical order of the given name.
• Medium: English, Hindi and 13 regional languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu). Questions show in your chosen language and in English.
• Syllabus: Annexure C lists the professional topics for each post. The general sections cover number systems, percentages, interest, geometry and statistics for arithmetic; series, coding, syllogism, Venn diagrams and data sufficiency for reasoning; current affairs, Indian geography, polity and economy for awareness; and physics, chemistry and life sciences up to Class 10 for general science.
• RRBs will put mock tests on their websites. Candidates may not take calculators, phones or any electronic items into the centre, and cloak room arrangements are not available.

Because 70 of the 100 marks are professional, the post-specific syllabus decides your rank. For Nursing Superintendent the list includes anatomy, physiology, medical-surgical nursing, community health, child health, mental health, midwifery and obstetrics, and nursing management. For Pharmacist it runs from pharmaceutics and pharmacology to jurisprudence and regulatory science.

How to apply

The sign-in page of the RRB application portal. Log in with your registered phone number and an Aadhaar OTP, tick the consent box, complete the captcha and press Login. New candidates use “Create an account”.

1. Read the full notice and Annexures A and B for your post.
2. Create an Account through the link on the RRB website. If you already made one for a 2024, 2025 or 2026 CEN, log in with the same credentials. Name, mobile number and email entered here can never be changed, and RRBs send recruitment messages only to those, so use your own number and email.
3. Verify your identity with DigiLocker or Aadhaar in that step. The notice says candidates using other photo IDs face stricter scrutiny at every stage.
4. Choose one RRB and fill your zone and post preferences.
5. Enter your details exactly as in your certificates: name, parents’ names and date of birth as per matriculation or SSLC. If your name changed, note both names.
6. Live photo. The portal takes a live picture, with no upload. Wear non-white (preferably dark) clothes, keep the camera at eye level, face straight with a neutral expression, no cap, mask or glasses, and your whole face inside the frame. Never photograph a printed or digital photo, because such applications are rejected outright.
7. Upload your signature as a JPG or JPEG of 30 to 49 KB, at least 140 by 60 pixels, scanned at 100 DPI or more. Write it in running (joined) handwriting, in black ink on white paper, inside the 35 by 20 mm box. Capital letters, block letters, a thumb impression or an unclear scan lead to rejection.
8. SC and ST candidates who want the free railway pass upload their certificate as a PDF under 400 KB.
9. Pay the fee online and wait for the confirmation by email and SMS. Keep your registration number.
10. If you are eligible for a scribe, tick the scribe option now and give the scribe’s details in the 27 to 31 October window. The scribe must first register on rrbapply.gov.in and be arranged by you at your own cost.

A Common Service Centre can help if you have no computer or internet. Find one at findmycsc.nic.in. The helpline is rrb.help@csc.gov.in or 9592001188 and 01725653333, 10 AM to 5 PM on working days.

What gets applications rejected

Trap	What the notice says
Two applications	All of them are rejected, and you can be debarred from all future RRB and RRC exams
Photo or signature not as specified	Rejected at any stage. Your signature must also match the one you give later at the exam, DV, medical and appointment
Date of birth different from the matriculation certificate	Disqualification. No change request is considered
Awaiting final result	Not eligible
Wrong category claim	OBC-NCL needs a certificate issued on or after 1 April 2026 and not later than 14 October 2026, plus a self-declaration at DV. EWS needs an income and asset certificate for FY 2025-26. Otherwise you are treated as unreserved
Certificates in a different format	Only the annexure formats are accepted. Claims for SC, ST, OBC-NCL, EWS, ExSM and PwBD are dropped without them
Fee not paid by 16 October	The application is not accepted without a confirmed payment
Changing the RRB, mobile or email	Not allowed under any circumstances
Absent or short of originals at DV	Candidature cancelled. No extra time is given

After you apply

• Check the RRB website regularly. City intimation comes about 10 days before the CBT, and the e-call letter about 4 days before. No letters go by post.
• Exam day: carry the e-call letter and a valid original photo ID (voter ID, Aadhaar or printout of e-Aadhaar, driving licence, PAN, passport, employer ID card for government employees, or school or college ID if studying) and a colour passport photograph not older than two months. At the centre you write a self-declaration on the e-call letter in front of the invigilator, in cursive and not in capitals, and sign it with your left thumb impression.
• Change of date, centre or shift is not allowed.
• Document verification: bring originals and two sets of self-attested photocopies. Upload colour scans of your photo and signature before your DV date at oirms-ir.gov.in/rrbdv. Certificates must be in English or Hindi, or come with a self-attested translation. If you work for a government department or PSU, bring a no-objection certificate.
• Remember that selection by an RRB does not give a right to appointment. The Railway administration issues the offer.

Official sources

• Unified RRB website (CEN 05/2026 and notices)
• Online application and scribe registration portal
• Document verification upload portal
• Indian Railway Medical Manual, Chapter 5 (medical standards)
• Find My CSC

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