Indian Railways launches new Online Vendor Registration System

In-line with the philosophy of the Government to make systems and procedures digital and transparent, Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), (headquartered at Lucknow), the research arm of Ministry of Railways, has launched “New Online Vender Registration System”. This system was evolved after Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal undertook comprehensive review of the functioning of the RDSO. This new system provides major improvements and paradigm changes in the registration system over the earlier system. Public access to the information, expeditious process completion with defined timelines, simplification of procedures, round-the-year services, availability of all related information on RDSO Website, constant monitoring at all levels, reduction in cycle timelines, regular updation of online data, user friendly interface etc. are the hallmarks of the new system. Some of the salient features of this new system are given below:-

1. Vendor need not come to RDSO for any activity related to his case for registration.
2. All activities in vendor registration cycle have been tied to specific timelines and in case these activities exceed the allotted timelines, a system generated alert is flashed to all concerned officials and higher ups for immediate corrective action in the matter.
3. The process of documents scrutiny and physical verification of the Vendor’s facility has been made a parallel exercise. Earlier 8 to 11 months would elapse before physical verification activity used to start. It used to start only after completion of document scrutiny. Now both the activities i.e. document scrutiny & physical verification start simultaneously. This is a major improvement over earlier process and would help in reduction of cycle timelines.
4. Process has been made simpler and user friendly. With the new online system implemented by RDSO, the Vendor can now deposit registration fee, submit documents, download technical drawings & specifications and interact with RDSO online. At each stage the vendor would get a system generated alert / acknowledgment regarding status of his case with details.
5. Management dashboard has been provided for centralized monitoring of the whole procedure and the process work-flow with the objective of identifying bottlenecks , if any, and initiating corrective action

RDSO has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for all the 600 plus items and has kept the window open with no timelines to enable wider participation and association of industries and interested vendors in developing products and new technologies for the Railways. Now vendors can register for any of the item throughout 365 days of the year. It will provide tremendous business opportunity for growth of new SMEs thus aiding job creation.

All RDSO controlled items have now been listed on RDSO website with specific timelines for Vendor Registration process for each individual item. RDSO will endeavor to complete the registration process for which the vendor applies within defined timelines.

All information and data pertaining to cases of vendor registration and all references pending at RDSO has now been brought into public domain by uploading it on RDSO website. Details of all cases are now available in public domain and can be accessed by everybody. Regular updation of this data is now being ensured by RDSO for information of all stake holders and general public.