Mumbai: Central Railway spear-headed the e-Auctions of commercial assets over Indian Railways to boost small entrepreneurs and start-ups. Central Railway has taken steps to bring Commercial Earning and Non-Fare Revenue contracts under the ambit of electronic auction through Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS). Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Minister for Railways, had launched e-auction for commercial earning in June 2022. This e-auction portal has increased Railways earning and helped in realization of true value of the assets in addition to boosting small entrepreneurs and start-ups. Since the launch of e-auction portal for commercial assets, auctions have been conducted 137 contracts have been awarded. Total value of contracts awarded: Rs 2281.25 lakhs. Central Railway was the first railway to conduct e-auction which was later emulated by Railway Board which issued a detailed e-auction policy and standard condition of contract of commercial earnings and Non-Fare Revenue contract and same got implemented on all Zones of Indian Railways.
With this E-Auction policy, the tedious process of tendering would get simplified. Also, it would give opportunities to small entrepreneurs and start-ups to join the e-auction process. This policy enhances ease of living, promotes transparency and adds to Digital India initiatives in the railways
Earning Assets: SLRs, 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 are mapped category-wise in the portal once, and the system will remember forever and help to improve monitoring of assets on real time basis and also get to know the position of asset lying idle. So far, due to continuous effort a total 137 contracts viz. Non-Fare Revenue (65), Parking (40), Pay and Use (14) and Parcel (18) from which annual revenue of Rs 2281.25 Lakh will be fetched. Some of the Non-Fare Revenue highest bids are shown below-
Success Stories:
1) Outdoor Hoardings Chunabhatti/Mumbai Division reserved price was Rs. 38.55 lakh and offer Rs. 52.00 lakh, 35% more. Outdoor Hoarding at Bhusaval Railway station was Rs. 2.59 lakh and offer Rs. 3.14 lakh, 21% more.
2) CSMT RDN Digital Display reserved price was Rs. 34.01 lakh and offer Rs. 50.00 lakh, 47% more. Solapur RDN Non Digital Display reserved price was Rs. 2.50 lakh and offer Rs. 9.18 lakh, 267% more.
3) Pune Mobile asset exterior 11009/10 reserved price was Rs. 5.00 lakh and offer Rs. 6.92 lakh, 38.40% more.
4) In Parking contract, Bhusawal parking site was awarded for Rs.61.50 lakh, which is 52% more than reserved price. Kalyan parking site was awarded for Rs. 35.33 lakh, it is 60% more than reserved price. and Bhiwandi Railway site was awarded for Rs. 21.05 lakh, which is 67% more. In Nagpur (car to coach) tender awarded for Rs. 43.00 lakh, which is 38% more than RP.
5) In parcel contract, F-SLR (Luggage van) of Train No. 12105 fetched Rs. 26500/ per trip, which is more than 69% of reserved price. F-SLR of Train No. 12111 fetched Rs. 20700/ per trip, which is more than 82% of Reserved Price. F-SLR of Train No. 12362 fetched Rs. 34577/ per trip, which is 39% more than Reserved Price.
The Railway assets have been mapped location-wise on 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 a real-time basis and minimise asset-idling. Now, in the e-auction process, a bidder from anywhere in the country needs to self-register once for participating in the auctions of any field unit of the Indian Railways through the portal. Bids can be place remotely for the management right of an asset after depositing the 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 the requirement of financial turnover, as such all the eligibility criteria have been removed. Further, the financial requirement has been relaxed to a great extent. There is no financial turnover requirement for annual contracts of up to Rs 40 lakh.
