All contracts will be on e-tendering platform soon: Rail Min

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said by early next year all tendering for Indian Railways will be done online.
Speaking in Margao after flagging off Rajdhani Express connecting Goa to New Delhi, Prabhu also promised online examinations for railway recruitment.
"By the end of this year, or earliest, in the early part of next year everything will be on the internet. All contracts will be on e-tendering platform," he said.
"We are trying to ensure that whole process of the railways will be transparent. All examinations which people used to give, there were a lot of complaints about wrongdoing. Now we have started online examinations and the idea would be all examinations will be made online," the minister said.

Tendering in the Railways used to earlier take sometimes six years, especially for large tenders, Prabhu said.
"My colleagues in the Railways Board tell me that earlier when a project was announced, it would take six years for a tender to be issued...The time gap has been reduced to six months. My target is to reduce it even further and make it completely transparent," he added.

Prabhu further said modernisation in railways was underway but it would take a while to be noticed on ground as the coach rollout was a slow process.
"We have already rolled out first few coaches. But it will take time because there are thousands of coaches which need to be renovated and re-fitted. Once that is done, people will experience a different type of travel experience when they travel by Indian Railways," Prabhu said.

The Rajdhani Express will travel from Madgaon to Hazrat Nizamuddin and vice versa.
"The regular bi-weekly Rajdhani Express Train No 22413 will depart Madgaon at 10:05 hrs on every Sunday and Monday and reach H. Nizamuddin at 12:40 hrs on the next day," a release from Konkan Railway said.
"In return direction, Train No. 22414 will leave from H. Nizamuddin at 10:55 hrs on every Friday and Saturday and reach Madgaon at 12:55 hrs on the next day.