Public sector companies, including those owned by Railways, will now have to compete in the open market with the private sector to bag railway contracts, the Railway Ministry under Ashwani Vaishnaw has decided.
In an order issued on Tuesday, the Railway Ministry withdrew the earlier policy, promulgated during the time of Vaishnaw’s predecessor Piyush Goyal in December 2019, that had mandated that the Railway Board would first screen and award the work to eligible Public sector undertakings (PSUs). The winning PSU would then float the tender among contractors in the open market for the actual work to be done. This policy had been in place so that Railways could get some price advantage through competitive bidding among PSUs.
