Indian Railways

Railways were Opening Introduced in India in 1853 and run between Bombay and Thane. In 1951, all the systems were nationalizing to form one unit – The Indian Railways. IR or Indian Railways was operated and owned by the Government of India throughout the MofR or Ministry of Railways.

The State owned activity, Indian Railways is one of the largest networks of railways in the world, Controlling both Suburban and long distance rail systems on a multi- gauge network of narrow, metre and broad gauges. Covering over 1,15,000 kms of tracks over 7,500 stations and a route of 65,000 kms, Indian Railways is one of the Strongest Networks of Railways in the World.

Although Indian Railways manufacture its heavy engineering components and rolling stocks in one of its six Production Units or Manufacturing plants, it procures a number of its components from private sector companies through Railway Tendering. 

The Ministry of Railways has 11 public undertakings under its control which pass out tenders from time to time.  With a large network and rising need to develop the railway network, the ministry often requires a manufacturing unit from private sector companies which it gets through the tendering method.

Railway Tendering, like most government sector tendering requires the companies to bid for a tender. It is one of the most transparent tendering processes in India as it provides an equal stage to all the companies based on its objectives and the cost factor.
Reading the Railway tendering guidelines is extremely necessary in the process of tendering as all the companies bidding for a certain tender need to pass all the criteria mentioned in the guidelines. It involves a number of changed criteria such as cost factor, timelines and the specification of the manufactured products.

The process of selecting the right bid is complete by the Ministry of Railways openly for all the eleven activities in an impartial and apparent selection process.

Each of the public sector bids is cautiously considered on the similar objectives and platforms without any bias.
Private sector companies, whose bids win government tenders do so because of their expertise and ability in providing the right bid to the tendering board group. The proficient companies also take the safeguard for preparing a tender document which caters to all the requirements mentioned in the government tender. This gives them a greater advantage over the other private sector bids.