Railways cracks down on brand-linked tenders

New Delhi: The Railway Board has directed railway zones and production units to remove restrictive conditions from procurement tenders and prohibit brand-specific references wherever feasible, following a vigilance investigation that found such practices creating monopolistic situations.

The directive requires tender documents to avoid specifying particular brands, trade names or trademarks, officials said. Where products bearing Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) marks are available, procurement must be restricted to such products. These terms are in line with existing government procurement guidelines, and the board's instructions are aimed at reinforcing them

Existing item descriptions and specifications will also be reviewed, with brand-specific requirements replaced by generic, non-restrictive terms, according to the directive.


"Tenders must not favour any brand where BIS norms exist," a senior official told ET. In 2022, instances of lapses in the procurement of winter jackets and retro-reflective tapes used in raincoats were flagged to the national transporter.

The directive assumes significance given the scale of railway procurement. The latest available railway annual report shows that the national transporter procured goods worth ₹75,793 crore in 2023-24, excluding track items and supplies bundled with works contracts.

Zonal railways and production units handled nearly 73% of these purchases through a decentralised system. The network's 306 depots stock more than 242,000 types of raw materials, components, spares and consumables. Railways is slated to spend ₹2.81 lakh crore from gross budgetary support in 2026-27. The budget for the year has earmarked another ₹12,000 crore for investment from extra-budgetary resources, taking total railway capital expenditure to ₹2.93 lakh crore.