New Delhi: Indian Railways has taken steps to bring Commercial Earning and Non-Fare Revenue contracts under the ambit of electronic auction through Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS), in line with prevailing e-auction of scrap sale.
Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw launched e-auction for Commercial earning, Non-Fare Revenue (NFR) contracts in Rail Bhavan today. This will not only increase Railways earning but also bolster efforts being taken by the Government for ease of doing business.
Speaking on this occasion, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “This policy is in line with the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister to change the experience of common man by the use of technology. With this new policy, tedious process of tendering would get simplified. Also, it would give opportunities for youth to join the e-auction process. This policy enhances ease of living, promotes transparency and adds to Digital India initiatives in Railways.”
Earning Assets: Parcel Van, Pay & Use Toilets, Advertisement rights on station circulating area and coaches, AC waiting rooms, Cloak rooms, Parking lots, Plastic Bottle crushers, ATMs, Station co-branding, Video screens for content on demand etc. These assets will be mapped location-wise in the portal once, and the system will remember forever if it is covered for earning or not. This will improve monitoring of assets on real time basis and will minimize asset-idling.
Present System: Participation in present e-tendering requires physical registration with the concerned field unit. This makes difficult for potential bidders from the rest of India to compete. It takes time in finalization due to requirement of physical meeting of tender committee members.
E-Auction: Bidder located anywhere in India need to self register once for participating in auctions of any field unit of Indian Railways through the portal. Remotely bid can be placed for management rights of an asset after depositing earnest money (EMD) electronically.
Successful bidder would be able to receive acceptance online and through e-mail in very short span of time. Except requirement of financial turnover, as such all the eligibility criterions have been removed. Further, financial requirement has been relaxed to the great extant. There is no financial turnover requirement for annual contracts upto Rs. 40 lacs
