Vaishnaw launches Policy and Portal of e-auction for commercial earning, NFR contracts

New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI): Indian Railways has taken steps to bring commercial earning and non-fare revenue contracts under the ambit of electronic auction through the Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS), in line with the prevailing e-auction of scrap sale.

Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw launched an e-auction for Commercial earning, Non-Fare Revenue (NFR) contracts in Rail Bhavan today. This will not only increase Railways earnings but also bolster efforts being taken by the Government for ease of doing business.

Speaking on this occasion, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "This policy is in line with the vision of Prime Minister to change the experience of common man by the use of technology. With this new policy, the 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 are Parcel Van, Pay and 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 the monitoring of assets on real time basis and will minimize asset-idling.

Participation in present e-tendering requires physical registration with the concerned field unit. This makes it difficult for potential bidders from the rest of India to compete. It takes time in finalization due to the requirement of physical meetings of tender committee members.

On the e-auction front, bidder located anywhere in India needs 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.

A successful bidder would be able to receive acceptance online and through e-mail in a very short span of time. Except requirement of financial turnover, as such all the eligibility criteria have been removed. Further, the financial requirement has been relaxed to the great extent. There is no financial turnover requirement for annual contracts upto Rs 40 lacs. (ANI)

Source: National