Indian Railways digitising procurement, upping its share in multi-modal transport, senior officials
Indian Railways is working on fully digitising its procurement, increasing its share in multi-modal transport and lowering overall logistics cost, said senior officials at the 3rd Edition of CII Rail Connect on held on Thursday and Friday at New Delhi.
“In Indian Railways, we have been asked to work in faceless manner. We are trying to digitise our systems and processes to ensure that vendors do not need to (physically) contact us” said Mr PS Shami, Special DG, Vendor Development RDSO (Research Designs and Standards Organisation), Indian Railways. He encouraged all vendors to use Indian Railways’ e-Procurement System, an online system developed by CRIS, under direction of Railway Board -- which has detailed modules for all sorts of procurements. Use of these digital processes has led to lower complaints, he added.
Dr Surendra Kumar Ahirwar, Executive Director, Traffic Commercial, Railway Board, while speaking in the conference said on Thursday that Indian Railways is devising policies to aim at higher modal share and lower logistics cost.
“If cargo were alive (if Cargo was a passenger making a conscious choice), then it would have preferred multimodal transport as it is unaware that different modes of transportation also compete with each other” he said, adding “Multimodal transportation is the most natural mode of transportation for cargo and containerisation is the most efficient hitherto known technique for ensuring the multimodal shift. Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off refers to a type of cargo ship or ferry designed to transport wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks, and buses, that can be driven directly on and off the vessel via ramps) is the solution to this but it’s definitely a challenge for the container operators and the railways. Both the sectors (container and railways) should accept this challenge and ensure the seamlessness in changing the mode when cargo is already containerised.”
Senior Officials ranging from Indian Railways to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation emphasised on the focus on indigenisation. Vande Bharat train is more than 98% indigenised, said Mr Vinod Kumar, Executive Director (Production Unit & Workshop), Railway Board, adding that interiors of Vande Bharat match with the coaches of the train running in Japan except from their speed which cross 300 kmph.
“Vande Bharat Sleeper rakes are currently under field trials, while enhancing Amrit Bharat Trains and retrofitting hydrogen fuel cells in DPRS (Distributed Power Rolling Stock) rakes,” said Mr Kumar. “The Railway Boad is aiming to increase LHB (Linke-Hofmann-Busch) coach production annually, and also all ICF coaches will be replaced by LHB coaches by 2030. It has also planned to introduce modern amenities including GPS-based PAPIS, vacuum toilets, comfortable interiors, automatic doors and advanced braking systems” he added.
Mr Ashok Tewari, Executive Director (Rolling Stock), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, also underscored the policy thrust on indigenization. “We are promoting indigenisation for which we need support of OEMs for development of those items which are imported and are also highly technical. Rolling stock department of DMRC has indigenised 109 items. Some of the items which are indigenised are steps for escalators, automatic fare collection system, grinding stone used for railway grinding machines, bank note recycler.”
21 March 2025
New Delhi