Yogesh K Porwar & Siddarath Sethia
*• Quick finalization of contract and quick re-award in case failure of any contract.*
*• No geographical restriction on bidders/ applicants for registration and participation in any e-Auction throughout Indian Railways.*
*• Enhances ease-of-doing-business.*
Indian Railways has introduced e-auction system since June 2022 on pilot basis in order to promote ease of doing business and bring in transparency in transactions.
On SWR,e-auction has been implemented with effect from 08th July after having carried out on pilot basis in May 2022.The first successful e-auction was conducted by Bengaluru Division on 08.07.2022.
The e-auction initiative of Indian Railways is in line with the Digital India Initiative of Hon’ble PM.
The transparency in the process and visibility of assets is enhanced,thus preventing idling of assets (parking space, advertising space at stations, railway premises, pay & use toilets etc).
This contributes directly to enhancing non-fare revenue for Railways.Further,in the e-auction process,a bidder from anywhere in the country needs to self-register only once for participating in the auctions of any field unit of the Indian Railways through the online portal.
After depositing the earnest money (EMD) electronically,the bidder will be provided with a digital key which will enable him to place a bid remotely for the management rights of an asset across Indian Railways through the portal from the comfort of his home/office.
A successful bidder would be able to receive acceptance online and through e-mail in a very short span of time.
Compared to the conventional mode of auction, this is easy, hassle-free, and saves a lot of time as it is completely digital and facilitates transparency.
On SWR,so far 60 bids have been finalized, and it is expected to earn revenue of Rs.56.31 Cr.per annum for the next 3 years.
Out of this,Bengaluru Division leads with 11 Contracts finalized for a total worth of Rs.46 Cr. followed by Hubballi Division which has finalized 36 Contracts for a total value of Rs.7.51 Cr. and Mysuru Division awarding 11 contracts for a total value of Rs. 2.8 Cr. through e- auction.
