Rlys e-auction for commercial earning & NFR contracts to end supremacy of few

NEW DELHI: In its bid to end the supremacy of a few traditional players — who have continued to bag commercial and non-fare revenue (NFR) contracts such as parking lots, shops, advertisement rights on station circulating areas and coaches, air-conditioned waiting rooms and cloak rooms, the railway ministry has now made the entire tendering process online.
This move is aimed at boosting small entrepreneurs and startups as the ministry has also done away with the condition of financial turnover for annual contracts of up to Rs 40 lakh. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday launched the e-auction for commercial earning and non-fare revenue (NFR) contracts.
“With this new policy, the tedious process of tendering would get simplified. Also, it would give opportunities to youngsters to join the e-auction process. This policy enhances ease of living, promotes transparency and adds to Digital India initiatives in the railways,” the minister said.
As per the new norm, the assets will be mapped location-wise on the portal once and the system will remember forever if it is covered for earning or not. The ministry said this will improve the monitoring of assets on a real-time basis and minimise asset-idling.
Currently, even for participation in e-tendering, the bidders need to complete physical registration with the field unit concerned. It takes time in finalisation due to the requirement of physical meeting of the tender committee members.
But in the e-auction process, a bidder from anywhere in the country can self-register once for participating in the auctions of any field unit of the Indian Railways through the portal. A successful bidder would be able to receive acceptance online and through e-mail.
A pilot for the scheme was launched in 11 divisions of nine railway zones and 80 contracts of a combined value of Rs 128 crore were finalised during the pilot launch.