Palakkad railway division offers more commercial contracts through e-auction after earning ₹12 crore in four months

Having earned ₹12 crore through e-auction of commercial contracts in the last four months, Palakkad division of Southern Railway is offering more commercial contracts through e-auction in the days to come.

The division has completed four rounds of auctions in which 11 contracts for managing parking areas, four contracts for running of pay-and-use toilets, 19 contracts for advertisement rights, and five contracts for leasing of parcel vans were awarded.

The division is planning to conduct a fifth round of e-auction from November 7.

New contracts up for grabs in Palakkad division of Southern Railway

Contracts for leasing of parcel vans on six trains would be auctioned on November 7 at 10 a.m., vehicle parking contracts for 10 stations would be auctioned at 2 p.m.

Audio-visual display contract for 16 stations at 10 a.m. on November 8.

Setting up of non-digital boards at 20 stations at 10 a.m. on November 10.

Running of pay-and-use toilets at six stations at 12 noon on November 17, and setting up Automated Teller Machines at six stations, would be auctioned at 12 noon on November 17.

The division commenced the auctions for awarding commercial contracts in July 2022 through the e-auction platform in the Indian Railways E-procurement System (IREPS) site.

Eligibility criteria for e-auction of Indian Railways

For participation in the auction, applicants have to register in the e-auction earnings-and-lease module of IREPS with one-time registration fee of ₹10,000 plus 18% GST.

Bidders can place a bid from anywhere in India.

Eligibility criteria was relaxed to some extent with no requirement of providing previous turnover details for contracts that were valued less than ₹40 lakh.

For contracts up to ₹1 crore, bidders had to show turnover of ₹20 lakh. For contracts above ₹1 crore, bidders had to show turnover of ₹50 lakh.

Contracts are finalised quickly and so is the re-awarding of a contract in case of any failure. Under e-auction system, contracts could be finalised within three days.