NEW DELHI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Indian Railways has embarked on a massive drive to recruit nearly 90,000 new employees, days after deciding to sack in one go some 13,000 staffers who are on "unauthorized" leave for a long time.

"Ministry of Railways has announced one of the world's largest recruitment processes for 89,409 posts ...," an official statement said.

A senior Indian Railways official said Friday that the massive recruitment drive of youths will spruce up the performance of the train network, given 13,000 of its 1.3 million employees will be retrenched soon.

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.

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

However, train disasters are quite common in India as much of the colonial-era rail infrastructure is out of date. A number of people are killed in train accidents, mostly derailments, across the country every year.

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pledged 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernize and expand the railways.