Indian Railways tightens contract execution framework

Indian Railways will assess the bid capacity of contractors contesting for all projects above Rs 10 crore, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Tuesday. He noted this is among the reforms aimed at improving construction quality on the national transporter.

The minister announced approval of new wagons for salt, and automobile movement. Rules allowing change of train boarding stations have been relaxed to address passenger concerns. Vaishnaw also announced tighter refund norms for cancellation of tickets aimed at curbing touts.

“There have been instances of bidders getting projects and then looking for manpower to execute them,” the minister said, noting this leads to delays. Stricter limits on sub-contracting are also being introduced.


“Contractor must also carry out works for 60% of total price directly under its own supervision and sub-contracting is allowed to 40%,” an official presentation said, noting a detailed execution plan will now be required before project start. This is expected to enable better monitoring and timely execution.

According to Vaishnaw, bidders will furnish an additional Performance Guarantee if their quote is significantly lower than the estimated cost projected by the Indian Railways for its projects.

Salt and cars containers

The minister announced introduction of new stainless-steel containers designed for salt transport, boasting of top loading and side unloading.

He also gave the auto industry freedom to design to high-capacity double stack wagons, subject to safety approvals. “There new container wagons will be procured by the private sector,” he told ET.

Ticket cancellation and refund

The railways also tweaked its ticketing norms, aiming to curb black marketing. According to Vaishnaw, an assessment of touts ticketing patterns found they would book extra tickets and cancel unsold ones before train departure times, gaining significant booking amounts back as refunds.

“Over 3 crores suspicious (bot) user IDs have been deactivated,” he said while listing the ongoing action against railway ticketing touts. In another relaxation, commuters can now change their boarding point (station) up to 30 minutes before scheduled departure of trains.