Empowering MSMEs with News & Insights

Not only procurement procedure, project execution of Railway contracts too needs coordination & transparency

Updated: Jul 25, 2017 07:18:32am
image

Not only procurement procedure, project execution of Railway contracts too needs coordination & transparency

New Delhi, July 25 (KNN) The Railway Ministry, in a meeting with industry body FISME and SIDBI, assured redressal of issues concerning the MSME sector with regards to procurement procedures. On one hand the assurance comes as some relief to the sector, while on the other there exist concerns with regard to the project execution that needs to be addressed.

Talking to KNN an Uttar Pradesh based MSME entrepreneur said that the problem in the railways contract management is at two levels. While one is at the tendering level, regarding which the MSME associations have been holding discussions with the Railway Ministry, the other problem is with regard to execution of the railway projects.

There have been cases in which the contractors involved in the projects have suffered losses primarily due to the haphazard planning and improper coordination in the railway department.

Explaining further, he added that Railway has several bodies such as Divisional Railways,  Zonal Railways, CORE/ RE having departments like Civil, Signalling and Telecommunications, Railway Electrification, etc. often with overlapping deliverables & complicated approval system in a project.

For a project to be executed it requires input drawings and approvals from the different departments at different stages. Unfortunately project priorities of different departments are different, which results in the delay in implementation and execution of the project.

For instance, single line Railways Electrification  project from Khurja to Saharanpur was allotted  in 2009 and had to be completed within 24 months. 

Due to delay in inputs & approvals from various departments, the project was completed in 8 years. Due to the delay the contractor incurred losses & has now filed a case in high court claiming for damages from Railways. Also, even before the completion of the project, doubling of Railway track was proposed, and another tender was awarded. All the erected masts were cut, new foundations casted & new masts were erected, leading to massive loss to Railways as well.

Grieving further the Entrepreneur informed that when the contractor tries to follow up with concerned railway departments, senior authorities are anguished that contractor approached them directly when tendering authority is someone else. Rather than supporting, they discourage good contractors to participate in Railways projects. General attitude is to keep passing the buck to other departments.

Referring to another cases of delay, he informed about a tender for railways electrification, from Noli to Tapri, which was awarded in March 2017 to a contractor, to be completed by Aug 2018. Even after 6 months, the basic ESP & SIP drawings work is not initiated, as Civil & S&T Department of NR don't have this route in their priority list and plan to take it up in 2019. This delay is causing huge loss to the contractor.

To save money of both the railways and Contractors, the best solution in such a scenario could be that the projects should be coordinated  by  the Chairman of Railway Board.

Also railways must set up real time project monitoring system to keep track of the projects. In case there is a delay, all stakeholders must be notified of it.

And joint meetings with officials and contractors must be called from time to time to ease the execution and resolve issues if any, like PGCIL, NTPC, etc. (KNN/ DA)

COMMENTS

    Be first to give your comments.

LEAVE A REPLY

Required fields are marked *