NCL Technician Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

One test decides everything. The notification says selection is on a candidate's relative score in the Computer Based Test.

Seventy per cent of the paper is your own trade, at the level of the ITI course you already hold. That is the highest concentration of trade content in any comparable recruitment, and it means a candidate who knows the trade properly starts a long way ahead.

These are fixed in advance and identical across the three positions, and they are a floor rather than a selection mark. Clearing them puts a candidate into the merit reckoning and confers no right to appointment; only those at or above the floor are called for document verification, in order of marks, up to the extent the positions remain unfilled.

Ties, shifts and the one-application rule

A tie is broken on the higher Section A score first, then the older candidate, then alphabetical order. That first rung matters: on equal totals the trade section decides, so 55 technical and 15 general beats 45 and 25.

If the test runs in more than one shift, scores are normalised by the formula printed in the notification, X_n = (S2/S1) × (X − X_av) + Y_av, with the shift having the highest average raw score taken as the base.

A candidate may apply for only one of the three positions: "If a candidate applies for multiple positions his/her candidature for recruitment against this notification will be cancelled." Where two applications arrive for the same position, the later one stands. Nothing after the test carries marks: document scrutiny, a medical examination under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules, and verification of character and antecedents. None adds to a score; each can remove a candidate from the list.

NCL publishes an indicative syllabus as Annexure-A to the notification: a technical syllabus for each of the three positions, and one common general syllabus.

Section B, 30 marks, common to all three

Thirty questions across four areas is thin coverage of each, and the notification's own wording ends every line with "etc.". Treat it as general awareness and basic aptitude at matriculation level rather than a specified syllabus.

Section A, Technician Fitter, 70 marks

Ten heads, broad rather than deep: basic arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry and statistics; systems of units and their conversion; Class 10 electricity; properties of materials; jigs, drilling and other machining processes; pipe fittings, belt drive and gear train; measuring and machining tools; limits, fits and tolerances; general workplace safety and fire extinguishers; and vehicles and internal combustion engines.

Note the first and third of those. The Fitter paper carries mathematics and elementary electricity inside its technical section, on top of the thirty general marks, which is not true of the other two papers.

Section A, Technician Electrician, 70 marks

By far the most detailed of the three, running to fifteen numbered heads with named topics.

Section A, Technician Welder, 70 marks

Twelve heads covering safety and first aid; shielded metal arc and oxy-acetylene welding and cutting; metal joining by bolting, riveting, soldering, brazing and seaming; joint types, edge preparation and fit-up; basic electricity for arc welding; heat, temperature and arc characteristics; the chemistry of the oxy-acetylene flame; arc welding power sources including transformer, motor-generator, rectifier and inverter machines and the merits of AC against DC; welding positions to EN and ASME and symbols to BIS and AWS; arc length and polarity; calcium carbide, acetylene generation, purifiers, hydraulic back pressure valves and flashback arrestors; oxygen production, cylinder colour coding and gas regulators; low and high pressure systems and rightward and leftward techniques; arc blow and distortion and their control; pipe specifications, pipe welding positions and development of elbow, T, Y and branch joints; filler rods and fluxes; electrode types, flux function, coating factor, BIS and AWS coding, moisture pick-up and baking; weldability, pre-heating, post-heating and inter-pass temperature; classification of steel and welding of low, medium and high carbon and alloy steels; effects of alloying elements; stainless steel weld decay; brass, copper, aluminium and cast iron.

Two rules govern all of it. Higher qualifications do not count: claims relating to higher and relevant qualifications are expressly inapplicable to Technician positions. And the syllabus is indicative: each trade list ends with a phrase on the lines of "as per the courses offered by the recognised institutes", which makes the candidate's own ITI curriculum the real specification.

Every condition is reckoned on the crucial date, 10 May 2025, which the notification defines as the closing date for registration and the date for determining eligibility in all respects, including reservation and relaxation.

Four rules decide most eligibility questions here.

• The apprenticeship is a separate requirement from the ITI. An ITI trade certificate alone is not enough; the Apprenticeship Training Certificate must come from NCVT or SCVT under the Apprentices Act 1961 and run at least a year.
• The ITI must be a two-year course for Fitter and Electrician. The notification specifies it for those two and not for Welder.
• ITI acquired through distance learning or part-time study, or an equivalent, is not considered.
• Higher qualifications do not help. Only candidates holding strictly the prescribed qualification may apply, and there is no relaxation in the minimum educational qualification for any category.

Age

The minimum age is 18. Date of birth is taken from the Matriculation or Secondary Examination certificate and its marksheets, and from nothing else.

Reservation

• PwBD and ex-servicemen reservation is horizontal. A general-category ESM or PwBD candidate is adjusted against UR, an OBC one against OBC-NCL, an SC or ST one against SC and ST.
• Only two of the three positions are identified for PwBD, on Coal India's list under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016. Fitter (standing, bending, lifting, manipulation with fingers) is identified for low vision, hard of hearing, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims, autism spectrum disorder (mild), specific learning disability and multiple disabilities involving those; Welder (sitting, standing, walking, bending, manipulation with fingers, seeing) for hard of hearing, one leg, dwarfism, acid attack victims, autism (mild), specific learning disability and multiple disabilities. Benchmark disability means not less than 40 per cent, and a scribe certificate in the prescribed format must be produced when reporting for the test.
• A reserved-category candidate selected on merit without relaxed standards is counted against UR, with the reserved vacancies filled separately. One who qualifies using a relaxed age limit or the lower cut-off counts against the reserved quota whatever their merit position.
• OBC eligibility runs on the Central List, with the candidate outside the creamy layer on the crucial date. EWS candidates need an income and asset certificate based on gross annual income for financial year 2024-25.
• An ex-serviceman already re-employed in a Group C or D civil post after availing ESM reservation is not eligible for it again, unless the self-declaration procedure under the DoPT memorandum of 14 August 2014 was followed on joining.

Finally, fill the category carefully: no change of category is allowed at a later stage, and the candidature of an applicant who asks for one is rejected.

Selection is by Computer Based Test alone. Everything else in the process is verification rather than assessment.

1. Apply online and declare eligibility. Candidates sit the test merely on the basis of their declaration in the form.
2. Computer Based Test, 100 marks in 90 minutes, no negative marking.
3. Result and objection window. Response query management opens on the NCL website three days after the test and stays open four days only.
4. Document scrutiny, for those at or above the minimum qualifying marks, in order of score, up to the extent the positions remain unfilled.
5. Provisional merit panel, then a provisional appointment letter, a medical examination under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules, and verification of character and antecedents.

Verification comes after the result, not before it. Scrutiny of eligibility claims is done once the test result is declared, and only for those above the cut-off. A candidate who is not in fact eligible will sit the paper, may score well, and will then lose the candidature at scrutiny.

The two-cadre rule

The vacancies sit in two cadres, Excavation and Electrical and Mechanical, and the qualifications for both are identical, so the notification does not ask candidates to choose: "All candidates applying for the positions will be deemed as have applied for both Excavation Cadre and Electrical and Mechanical (E&M) Cadre."

A separate merit list is then prepared for each position and cadre, and the order of filling is fixed: the Excavation panel is prepared first, category by category, and once those vacancies are filled the E&M ones are filled from the remaining candidates in the same order. That changes the arithmetic of the two large positions. Fitter has 66 Excavation vacancies and 29 in E&M, Electrician 14 and 81. A single application is in the reckoning for all 95 posts of the position applied for, and the highest scorers go to Excavation whether they wanted it or not.

What the 2025 cycle produced

The Welder ratio is the one to notice: ten posts drew 1,613 candidates who actually sat the paper, against 98 and 94 per vacancy for the two positions with 95 posts each. A small advertisement is not an easy one.

The field is overwhelmingly reserved-category. Of the 27,493 admit cards, 2,558 went to General candidates and 730 to EWS, against 10,469 to SC, 8,372 to OBC-NCL and 5,364 to ST. Attendance split along the fee: General candidates turned up at 83 per cent, EWS at 84 and OBC-NCL at 85, SC candidates at 60 per cent and ST at 69. Registering cost them nothing, so not appearing cost them nothing either. No EWS vacancy was notified for Welder, yet 14 EWS admit cards were issued and 11 sat, competing on unreserved merit.

What can still remove a candidate

• Failure to report for scrutiny with all originals within the stipulated time cancels the candidature automatically, without further notice. NCL published its list of cancelled candidatures in December 2025, before the merit list.
• Ineligibility found at any point, during scrutiny, during probation or even in the course of employment, cancels the candidature or appointment, and false or suppressed information terminates service forthwith.
• Unfair means, impersonation or misbehaviour at the test invites criminal prosecution, disqualification and debarment from future selection. Canvassing in any form is a disqualification.
• Medical fitness under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules, and character and antecedents verification, are conditions of appointment.

NCL also prints its own warning against touts: it has appointed no agent and no coaching advertisement to act for it, candidates are selected purely on merit, and anyone attempting to influence the company directly or indirectly is disqualified and may face legal action.

NCL pays its technician cadre on the coal industry's own scale, which is daily rated rather than monthly and set by the National Coal Wage Agreement and the Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry rather than by a pay commission.

On top of that basic, NCWA XI allows dearness allowance, attendance bonus, special allowance, house rent allowance, transport subsidy and medical facility. Coal-industry dearness allowance is revised quarterly and is a large component, so the daily basic understates the earning considerably.

Every one of the three positions moves up a category after a year of training, and career growth after that follows the prevailing cadre schemes and rules.

What the job carries besides pay: posting at any NCL mine or establishment in Singrauli and Sonbhadra districts, and liability to be transferred to other Coal India subsidiaries at any time during service, which reaches from Jharkhand and West Bengal to Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Assam. Medical fitness under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules is a condition of appointment, and the notification advises reading those rules beforehand. NCL bears no liability for a service bond, salary, leave salary or pension contribution from a previous employer, and a candidate already in government, public sector or autonomous body employment, including a departmental candidate, must produce an NOC at scrutiny and resign the present job before joining.

Applications are online only, by the route the notification prescribes: nclcil.in, then Career, Recruitment, the Employment Notification for Direct Recruitment of Technician Posts, then Apply Online.

The fee is the highest practical barrier at this level. ₹1,180 is a real sum for an ITI holder, it buys nothing but the right to sit a 90-minute test, and it is also why attendance in 2025 was 72 per cent rather than the 45 to 50 per cent a free examination sees. NCL adds that it is not responsible if a candidate deposits the fee in the wrong account, and that applications without it are summarily rejected with no representation entertained.

A candidate may apply for only one of the three positions. Applying for more than one cancels the candidature for the whole notification, and where two applications arrive for the same position the later one stands. Choosing which position is the first real decision of the recruitment, because the two-cadre rule puts a single application in the reckoning for all 95 posts of that position.

What must be uploaded

• A passport-size colour photograph not older than three weeks, and a signature in black or blue ink, both JPG or JPEG.
• The Matriculation or Secondary Board certificate.
• The NCVT or SCVT ITI trade certificate for the trade applied for, and the Apprenticeship Training Certificate of at least one year.
• For OBC (NCL), SC, ST and PwBD candidates, a self-attested valid certificate in the prescribed format; for EWS, an income and asset certificate based on gross annual income for 2024-25.

Before you press submit

• Nothing can be corrected afterwards. Cross check date of birth, category, contact details and qualifications, because no correction is possible later and no correspondence on it is considered. Category in particular cannot be changed at any later stage.
• A live e-mail address and mobile number are required, valid for at least the next year. All correspondence goes to them, general information goes on the website, and the admit card comes only through the website.
• Apply early. The window was twenty-four days, and NCL takes no responsibility for a candidate unable to submit in time.
• Form problems go to the Help Desk in the login portal, everything else to the recruitment e-mail on the notification. Jurisdiction for a dispute is the High Court of Jabalpur, and where the Hindi and English versions differ the English version is valid.

One company recruits and one company employs. Northern Coalfields Limited is a Miniratna company and a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, with its recruitment department at Post Singrauli Colliery, Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh. It is certified to ISO 9001, 14001, 27001 and 45001, and it runs its own recruitment: no commission, no common examination with other coal subsidiaries, no shared merit list.

The appointment is for regular deployment across NCL's mines and establishments in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, a single contiguous coalfield straddling a state boundary. The company is concentrated in one place rather than spread across the country.

Fitters are mostly Excavation and Electricians mostly E&M, which follows from the work: excavation machinery needs fitters, and the electrical infrastructure of a coalfield needs electricians. Welder vacancies are entirely Excavation.

Although the job sits in one coalfield, the appointment is not confined to it: selected candidates are liable to be transferred to other subsidiaries of Coal India at any time during service, and those operate in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam.

The pay comes from the Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry (JBCCI XI) and the allowances from the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA XI), industry-wide agreements negotiated between the coal companies and the workers' federations and covering every Coal India subsidiary. A Technician at NCL is therefore on the same scale as a Technician anywhere else in the group, which is what makes the transfer liability workable.

The Computer Based Test is held at test cities listed in the online application form rather than in the notification, and the candidate's choice is only a preference.

If candidate numbers require it the test may run in multiple shifts, in which case scores are normalised with the shift having the highest average raw score as the base.

Travel, and the one concession

SC and ST candidates are paid up to second class non-air-conditioned fare, subject to rules. The claim is not automatic: the TA claim form printed at the end of the notification must be handed to the invigilator after attempting the test, with the caste certificate and the onward journey ticket, which is mandatory, and the return ticket, which is optional. Later claims, and claims with incomplete information, are not entertained. Distance is calculated from the permanent address or the place of actual journey, whichever is shorter, and where only the onward ticket is produced the claim is settled at twice the onward fare.

No other travelling or daily allowance is paid, for the test, for scrutiny or for joining, and candidates attend at their own risk.

At the test: ninety minutes, one sitting, 100 questions, bilingual with the English version final where the Hindi is ambiguous. PwBD candidates using a scribe must produce the scribe certificate in the prescribed format when reporting, not afterwards. Unfair means, impersonation or misbehaviour in the hall invites criminal prosecution, disqualification and debarment from future NCL selections.

Employment Notification No. 65 of 2025 ran its full course, and the whole of it is on the NCL website. That cycle end to end is the best guide to what the next one will look like.

Four intervals are worth planning around. Twenty-four days from notification to closing, with the notification itself advising candidates not to leave it to the last day. Seven weeks from closing to the examination. Fourteen weeks from the examination to the final answer key, while the objection window was open for only four days, three days after the test. And six months from examination to the first appointment letters.

The panel then stays alive well beyond that: further letters went out against resultant vacancies in April 2026 and again in July 2026, more than a year after the test. A candidate below the last named appointee has not necessarily been passed over.

The next cycle will arrive the same way. All future communication is published on nclcil.in, with updates possibly reaching the registered mobile and e-mail. There is no published annual calendar and no fixed interval between employment notifications.

The admit card is downloaded by the candidate from nclcil.in. It is not posted and not e-mailed. A notice announces the examination date, a second notice publishes the download link, and in the 2025 cycle both came in June for a 30 June test, which leaves a short window. SMS and e-mail alerts may also go to the registered mobile and address, but the website is the channel NCL commits to, and the responsibility for downloading and printing rests with the candidate.

The card carries the time, the duration, the centre address and the instructions. The centre is allotted by NCL, and no change of centre or venue is permissible.

What it does not mean, in the notification's own words twice over: "Mere issuance of admit card shall not be taken as confirmation of eligibility of a candidate." Candidature stays provisional until NCL checks eligibility against original documents, and that happens after the test, only for those who clear the minimum qualifying marks, which themselves confer no right to appointment.

Carry the printed admit card; for PwBD candidates using a scribe, the scribe certificate in the prescribed Appendix-I and Appendix-II formats; and for SC and ST candidates claiming travel, the TA claim form, caste certificate and onward journey ticket, handed to the invigilator after the test.

NCL publishes this recruitment as a numbered series of signed notices on its own website. The 2025 sequence ran: the objection window on 3 July 2025, open four days; the final answer key with a link to the score card and the candidate's own response sheet on 9 October; the shortlist for document scrutiny on 29 October; Notice No. 426 on 1 November with the appeared counts and the marks of the last candidate recommended; the cancellations on 20 December; the merit list on 26 December; appointment letters on 31 December; and further letters against resultant vacancies in April and July 2026.

Three of those go further than most recruiters do. NCL publishes the candidate's own response sheet alongside the final key and score card, so every answer can be checked against the key it settled on. It publishes the marks of the last recommended candidate, split between Section A and Section B, for every category of every position. And it names the candidates whose candidature was cancelled, in a notice issued before the merit list rather than quietly afterwards.

Provisional appointment letters go by e-mail to the address given in the application. Selection stays provisional until eligibility, character and antecedents are verified and the candidate is found medically fit under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules, and the panel continues to be used for resultant vacancies long after the first letters.

Two different numbers are both called cut-offs here and they mean different things.

The minimum qualifying marks are fixed in the notification before applications open: 50 out of 100 for UR and EWS, 40 for SC, ST, OBC-NCL, PwBD and ex-servicemen, the same for all three positions. That is a floor, and the notification is explicit that reaching it "does not confer any right on the candidate for claiming appointment".

The number that mattered is the marks of the last candidate called for document verification, published in Notice No. 426 of 1 November 2025, split between the two sections.

• The real bar sat far above the notified floor. UR needed 50 to qualify and 73 to 77 to be called. A candidate planning around the notified minimum was planning to lose.
• Electrician was the hardest of the three, at 77 for UR against 73 and 72, even though it and Fitter had the same 95 vacancies and almost identical fields. The difference is the paper.
• Section A did the work. The technical section contributes between 41 and 59 of the total in every published row, Section B between 6 and 25. The general section never reached its own 30-mark ceiling anywhere on the table.
• The ex-servicemen bar landed on the floor, 40, 40 and 45 against a notified 40. In two of the three positions every ex-serviceman who cleared the minimum was called, which is what an under-subscribed horizontal quota produces. The Fitter PwBD row, 55, reflects a thin field the same way.
• EWS is not always the softest column. At Fitter it closed at 67 against SC 68 and OBC 71; at Electrician 68 against SC 71 and OBC 76. Those relationships are not stable and do not carry between years.

Where candidates scored the same marks the tie was resolved under clause 9(VII): higher Section A score first, then the older candidate, then alphabetical order. On totals this tightly bunched, that first rung will have decided real cases.

Attempt every single question

There is no negative marking. A blind guess among four options is worth +0.25 marks on average, so forty blind guesses are worth ten marks, and on a paper where UR closed at 73 to 77 that is the difference between selection and nothing. In the last five minutes, fill in everything still empty.

Seventy of the hundred marks are your own trade, and the results prove it

NCL published the split of the last recommended candidate's marks in every category, and Section A contributed between 41 and 59 marks in every row while Section B never exceeded 25 of its 30. The closing UR Electrician scored 55 and 22; the closing ST Fitter scored 47 and 14. Divide your preparation seven to three, the way the paper does.

Work from your own ITI curriculum

Every trade syllabus ends with a phrase like "as per the courses offered by the recognised institutes". That is not filler: it makes your ITI curriculum the real specification, and a candidate holding a two-year NCVT Electrician certificate already owns the syllabus for 70 marks of this paper.

Do not plan around the notified minimum

The notification fixes 50 for UR and EWS and 40 for the rest. In 2025 the mark that actually got a candidate called was 73 to 77 for UR, 71 to 76 for OBC-NCL, 68 to 71 for SC and 61 to 68 for ST. Aim at the closing marks, not the floor.

There is one exception. Ex-servicemen closed at 40, 40 and 45 against a notified 40, and the Fitter PwBD figure was 55. Under-subscribed horizontal quotas are by a wide margin the easiest route in, so anyone entitled to one should get the certificate in order before applying, because the category cannot be changed later.

Choose the position, not the cadre

You may apply for only one position, and applying for more cancels the candidature entirely. But the cadre is not a choice: every applicant is deemed to have applied for both, and the Excavation panel is filled first, so one application runs for all 95 posts of a position. Choose on your trade certificate and on the size of the field. In 2025 that was 9,313 candidates for 95 Fitter posts, 8,909 for 95 Electrician posts and 1,613 for 10 Welder posts, so Welder looked small and was the tightest ratio of the three.

Section B is thirty cheap marks

Four areas at matriculation level, none of them deep, and with no negative marking every one of the thirty should be attempted. In the published closing rows Section B ranged from 6 to 25, a very wide spread for a section this shallow, which means marks were there for candidates who bothered.

Get the apprenticeship certificate right before anything else

Eligibility is Matriculation plus an ITI trade certificate plus at least one year of Apprenticeship Training Certificate under the Apprentices Act 1961. Holding only the ITI is not enough, and distance or part-time ITI is not considered. Because verification happens after the test, a candidate with a defective certificate will sit the paper, may score well, and will lose it all at scrutiny.

The objection window is four days, and it opens before the key

Response query management runs on the NCL website for four days only, three days after the test, and objections by any other mode are not entertained. In 2025 the test was on 30 June, the window opened on 3 July, and the final key did not appear until 9 October. So doubts have to be raised from memory and the response sheet, not from the settled key.

No previous year question papers are available for NCL Technician as of now. After each test NCL publishes the final answer key, with each candidate's own response sheet and score card, on nclcil.in; in 2025 that came on 9 October, about three months after the paper.

All future communication about this recruitment is published on the NCL website, and NCL has appointed no agent or coaching advertisement to act on its behalf.

Who conducts NCL Technician recruitment?

Northern Coalfields Limited itself, through its recruitment department at Singrauli Colliery. NCL is a Miniratna company and a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. No commission is involved, there is no common examination with other Coal India subsidiaries, and everything is published on nclcil.in.

Which posts does it cover?

Three, under Employment Notification No. 65 of 16 April 2025: Technician Fitter (Trainee) Cat. III with 95 vacancies, Technician Electrician (Trainee) Cat. III with 95, and Technician Welder (Trainee) Cat. II with 10, making 200. A candidate may apply for only one; applying for more cancels the candidature entirely.

What is the examination pattern?

A single Computer Based Test of 100 marks in 90 minutes. Section A is 70 questions on the trade applied for, Section B 30 questions of general knowledge, general awareness, reasoning and verbal ability, and quantitative aptitude. One mark each, and no negative marking. The paper is bilingual, and the English version prevails.

Is there an interview or a trade test?

No. Selection is on the Computer Based Test alone. Document scrutiny, a medical examination under the Coal India Medical Attendance Rules and verification of character and antecedents follow; none adds marks, each can remove a candidate.

What qualification is required?

Matriculation, and an NCVT or SCVT ITI trade certificate in the trade applied for, and at least one year of Apprenticeship Training Certificate under the Apprentices Act 1961. For Fitter and Electrician the ITI must be a two-year course. Distance or part-time ITI is not considered, and higher qualifications carry no weight.

What is the age limit?

18 to 30 years on the crucial date, which is the closing date. Relaxations: 5 years for SC and ST, 3 for OBC (Central List), 10 to 15 for PwBD, and for ex-servicemen the actual defence service plus 3 years. An SC, ST or OBC ex-serviceman gets both cumulatively, subject to actual age not exceeding 50. Coal India employees have no upper age limit.

What marks were actually needed in the last cycle?

Far more than the notified floor of 50 for UR and EWS and 40 for the rest. The last candidate called for document verification scored, out of 100: Fitter, UR 73, OBC 71, SC 68, EWS 67, ST 61; Electrician, UR 77, OBC 76, SC 71, EWS 68, ST 64; Welder, UR 72, OBC 72, SC 70, ST 65, with no EWS vacancy notified. Ex-servicemen closed at 40, 40 and 45.

How are ties broken?

Higher score in Section A, the technical section; then date of birth, older candidate preferred; then alphabetical order of names.

What is the two-cadre rule?

The vacancies sit in an Excavation cadre and an Electrical and Mechanical cadre with identical qualifications, so every applicant is deemed to have applied for both. The Excavation panel is filled first and E&M from the remaining candidates, so one application is in the reckoning for all 95 posts of a position.

How much does it cost to apply?

₹1,000 plus ₹180 GST, that is ₹1,180, for UR, OBC-NCL and EWS. Nil for SC, ST, ex-servicemen, PwBD and departmental candidates. Online only, never refunded or adjusted, and an application without it is summarily rejected.

What is the pay?

Daily rated under JBCCI XI: ₹1,583.32 a day at Category III for Fitter and Electrician trainees and ₹1,536.50 a day at Category II for Welder trainees, plus dearness allowance, attendance bonus, special allowance, house rent allowance, transport subsidy and medical facility under NCWA XI. Training lasts a year, after which each position moves up a category.

Where will I be posted?

At any NCL mine or establishment in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. Selected candidates are also liable to be transferred to other Coal India subsidiaries at any time during service.

Does NCL publish answer keys or previous year papers?

It publishes a final answer key, a score card and the candidate's own response sheet after the test, and opens a response query window three days after the test for four days only. It does not publish the question papers. Note the order: the objection window closes months before the final key appears.

Is the 2025 recruitment still live?

Applications closed on 10 May 2025 and the merit list went up on 26 December 2025, but the panel is not exhausted: appointment letters were issued against resultant vacancies in April 2026 and again in July 2026. A candidate below the last named appointee has not necessarily been passed over.