NEW DELHI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Indian Railways will fill 90,000 vacancies by this year, in what's said to be its biggest recruitment drive.

"Efforts are on to complete all formalities and successfully conduct the recruitment drive by the end of this year. For 90,000 vacancies, the Indian Railways has received over 20 million applications," a railway official told the media Friday.

The decision to carry out such a large recruitment drive came months after the Indian Railways decided to sack some 13,000 of its employees who are on "unauthorized" leave for a long time.

The Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates some 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.

This vast public enterprise runs schools and hospitals, and has its own police force and construction companies, with 1.3 million people on its payroll, making it the seventh biggest employer in the world.