Ease of Doing Business: Indian Railways vendors alert! Modi government takes this important decision

Modi government is known for having taken a series of steps to enhance transparency, efficiency and ease of doing business in all the activities of various ministries. Now, in a latest development, Indian Railways has taken one more important step to ease the procurement system and improve ease of doing business in the network.

As per extant procurement norms of Indian Railways, identified Safety and Critical items where quality is of paramount importance, are procured from Vendors approved by its nominated approving agencies for the item. Recently decision has been taken that a Vendor, approved for an item by any of the Vendor Approving Agency of Indian Railways shall be considered as Approved vendor by all Railway Units for that particular item.

"This decision shall not only save the time and effort of vendors significantly doing away with need of approaching multiple vendor approving agencies for participating in tenders of all Railway units but also increase the competition in public procurement making it more economical and efficient. This shall also promote better utilization of manufacturing capacity of Industry in India, helping the cause of Make in India," Ministry of Railways said in a statement.

Previously vendor approved at one establishment was not automatically eligible to be considered for procurement at other establishments and they had to apply for approval at multiple establishments to get considered.

Now with this decision, even the Railways would have more options to choose from in a transparent manner.

Recently, Ministry of Railways had confirmed that in one of the largest recruitment exercises across the globe, Indian Railways successfully concluded Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs) and Technicians recruitment process. Noteworthy, unprecedented 47.45 lakhs candidates registered for over 64,000 posts of ALPs and Technicians.