South Central Railway GM emphasises on strong vendor base

Secunderabad: The South Central Railway (SCR), in association with Integral Coach Factory (ICF), organised a meet for indigenisation and vendor development in which around 250 manufacturing and start-up firms participated. The meet was held today at Rail Nilayam Auditorium, Secunderabad.

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager Gajanan Mallya, who was the chief guest at the meet, emphasized upon the need for a strong vendor base and good supply chain management system for the consistency in growth and progress of Indian Railways.

He stated that this initiative of holding vendor meet on pan-India basis with an objective to develop new vendors and enhancing product range of existing vendors had been taken up by Indian Railways. During the last 10 years, there had been more than 100% increase in purchases made by Indian Railways and also increase in the network which led to almost three-fold increase in procurement of Rolling Stock, he added.

There is an annual procurement of material worth more than Rs.50,000 core which includes approximately 1,13,000 items, stocked by Indian Railways. These items are procured through on-line using Indian Railways e-Procurement System (IREPS) and GeM Portal (Government e-Market Place). Payments are also being made through iPAS on-line payment system.

SCR Principal Chief Materials Manager V . Mishra said that the main objective of organising the meet was to develop more indigenous sources, help its participants understand the supply chain of the Railway, to disseminate the relevant information, E-procurement, vendor approval process and rules and issues pertaining to vendor development. More than 100 items were displayed in stalls put up. The purchase process in railways is now totally online and transparent, he added. The process of purchase through GeM, inspection procedure of materials, vendor registration, benefits to MSME etc were discussed in the meet.

SCR Additional General Manager John Thomas and Executive Director (Railway Stores) Railway Board Manoj Kumar Gupta also spoke on the occasion.