Under the Boiler Operation Engineer’s Rule 2011, the person in charge of a Boiler or a battery of Boilers, having more than 1000 sq. meter heating surface area must possess a Certificate of Proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer. This is a mandatory requirement for all boiler owners.

This certificate is issued by the Steam Boiler Department of a state or Union Territory after you pass the Examination conducted by them. For this a Board of Examiners, is formed by the Chief Inspector or Director of Steam Boiler of a state or UT. This Examination is known as BOE examination.

Before 2011, this examination were conducted by few states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, etc. under separate rules laid down respectively by those states. The type of Examination, its syllabus, eligibility criterion, and even the type of certificate issued used to be different for different states. The frequency at which the examinations were conducted was also not regular, except for perhaps the State of Gujarat.
For example, in many states there were two classes of this certificate issued as Boiler Proficiency Certificate 2nd and 1st class. Whereas, some states used to issue only one certificate as BOE certificate.

After Boiler Operation Engineer’s Rule 2011 came into force, all states and union territories will be now conducting the similar examination and issue the BOE certificate to the successful candidates. Many states, where this examination was not held for many years have now started forming the Board of Examiners and conducting the examination. The syllabus, eligibility criterion and number of papers are also now same for every states and UT.

The BOE examination comprises of 3 papers of 100 marks each on Boiler Theory, Numerical calculations and Engineering Drawing. Once you qualify the written papers, you have to appear in a viva test.

Once you acquire the certificate from any state, it is valid in all states of India. However, you can apply to appear for the BOE examination only if the state in which you are employed has formed the Board to conduct the examination. Before 2011, some states used to accept the application of candidates from other states if the candidate acquired the NOC from their respective state Boiler department. But now, most of the states are not accepting outstate applications. But then most of states have started conducting the examinations nowadays and the other states are also likely to follow the suit.

Once the Board is formed, the respective Boiler department issues a notice regarding the examination to be conducted. However, interested candidates should keep in constant touch with their respective divisional office of Asst. Directors of Boiler to become informed accurately about the current status in this regard.