The Railway Ministry had earlier taken a decision to enrol ex-servicemen without any written examination for various posts across the country.
As major cantonments are located within the geographical limits of Northern Railway, the response to the recruitment drive was very high, a senior NR official said.
"We received about 17,000 applications and March 31 was the deadline to fill up the posts," the official said.
The entire recruitment was transparent as candidates were kept abreast of the developments through website, the official said, adding that the selected ex-servicemen have started reporting for work.
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