E-Auctions of commercial assets: Indian Rlys awards 1,200 contracts covering 8,500 assets

Maligaon: Indian Railways has taken steps to bring Commercial Earning and Non-Fare Revenue (NFR) contracts under the ambit of electronic auction through Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS). Ashwini Vaishnaw had launched e-auction for commercial earning in June, 2022. This e-auction portal has increased Railways earning and helped in realisation of true value of the assets. Since the launch of e-auction portal for commercial assets, auctions have been conducted where 1,200 contracts have been awarded covering 8,500 assets. The total value of contracts awarded is of Rs 844 crore. E-Auctions have been conducted over 68 Divisions of Indian Railways.

N F Railway has also conducted e-auctions over the five divisions under its jurisdiction. 58 contracts have been allotted till September 15, 2022. The total value of contracts awarded is of Rs 43 crore. Various contracts of parcel van leasing, pay & use toilets, advertisement rights, AC waiting rooms, parking lots etc were successfully imbedded by NFR through Indian Railway e-Procurement System. The earning assets up for auction will be 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.

The auction will be conducted online through 'E-Auction Leasing' module of IREPS www.ireps.gov.in. Earlier system of physical registration of contractors Division-wise has been done away with.