The Indian Railways has received more than 2.3 crore applications for nearly 90,000 jobs it had advertised for earlier this year, the ministry said today.

Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) published two fresh notifications - on February 3 and February 10 - for a total of 89,409 vacancies.

Till now, it has received 47.56 lakh applications for 26,502 vacancies of assistant loco-pilots and technicians, and another 1.90 crore for 62,907 vacancies of Level-1 (erstwhile Group 'D') posts. This takes the total number of applications received for 89,409 posts to a whopping 2.37 crore.

The railways will conduct the world's largest computer-based recruitment exam within hours, which earlier took around two months to complete, the ministry said in a statement.

It said the online process will save an estimated 10 lakh trees. There will also be a provision for a 'mock test' before the actual examination to provide applicants an opportunity to familiarise with the improved computer-based testing process.

"Online Application System has saved the candidates from worries and uncertainties about postal delays or non-delivery of their applications. They are sure of submission of their applications and get SMS and email alerts at various stages of recruitment. Computer-based examination gives the candidates the flexibility of toggling between the languages of questions and revisiting and revising their answers, if required," the ministry said.

The ministry said there will be no interviews in the RRB examinations and a system of uploading answer keys has been introduced to enhance transparency and fairness.

"In Computer Based Tests (CBTs), candidates are shown their question paper, answer booklets along-with correct answer keys. They are also given an opportunity to raise objection regarding correctness of question and answer keys, if any," the ministry added.