Ever since it announced the roughly 90,000 vacancies across Group C and Group D categories, the Indian Railways has received close to 1.5 crore applications for the posts, Economic Times has reported.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had took to Twitter to announce the vacancies a month ago, as 26,502 posts for Group C and 62,907 posts in Group D are to be filled, with salaries ranging between Rs 18,000 to Rs 60,000 per month as formulated by the Seventh Pay Commission.

The application process is still going on, and with the deadline set for 31 March, Railways officials are expecting that the number of applications might even cross two crore.

“A lot of applicants are overqualified and even PhD holders are applying for the technician’s job,” a Railways official said.

However, this is just the number of primary applicants, which just requires the basic details of the applicant. The next step of filling up further details and paying the exam fee is to happen next after which the candidates will have to take a series of online tests before they land the job.

The recruitment is to be conducted by the Railways Recruitment Board which hopes to fill the crucial maintenance related vacancies as the Railways has been grappling with safety issues lately. Close to 1.2 lakh safety positions are currently empty, as positions vacated by retiring employees haven’t been filled since some years.