Railway’s Digital Contract System To Bring Transparency in Procurement of Materials

Aimed at bringing transparency and Ease of Doing Business in procurement of materials in national transporter, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will launch digital contract, a new system of digitisation of its entire supply chain across all zones of Indian Railways on Tuesday.

Digital contract is a seamlessly integrated digital supply chain, involving stakeholders including industries, financial institutions, internal customers of railways and inspecting agencies to create an efficient, responsive and transparent system, said an official in railways.

The system includes digitisation of processes like bill submission, inspection, dispatches, receipt, bill passing and bill payments, warrantee monitoring and enabling use of analytics for increasing supply chain efficiency in real time.

Though the railways already initiated 100% E-tenders and E-auctions in several of its areas, proposed digital contract is another step to ensure transparency and seamless flow of material, finances and information.

Digitisation will enable use of analytics for decision-making, reduce inventories and reduce procurement cycle time leading to reduced cost of products/services, said the official.

At present, the supply chain of Indian Railways is regulated through a single online website, which handles more than Rs 50,000 crore procurement through 100% E-tenders annually.

The supply chain also handles more than Rs 2,500 crore auction sale through 100% E-auctions in a year. This huge supply chain is managed from the zonal headquarters and production unit levels.

Any transformational change in such a huge supply chain requires innovative and out of the box solutions, while being within the public procurement systems, said the official.