Indian Railway, in a series of its continuous endeavours in enhancing transparency, efficiency and ease of doing business in all its activities, has taken one more important step to ease the procurement system 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 vendor approving agencies for the item.

Recently the 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 the need of approaching multiple vendors 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.”

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 even the Railways would have more options to choose from in a transparent manner.