Indian Railways Launches Transparent and Efficient “New Online Vendor Registration System” in RDSO

New Delhi, January 10: In-line with the philosophy of the Government to make systems and procedures digital and transparent, the Indian Railways has launched an efficient “New Online Vendor Registration System” in its research arm Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO). The new system is simpler and user-friendly can be seen as a tremendous business opportunity for growth of new SMEs. Under the new system, there is no need for vendors to visit RDSO office for any activity related to his case for registration. The fixed date schedule system has been done away with & the vendors can register for the listed items throughout 365 days of the year.

Parallel verification processes to help reduce cycle timelines. The registration process to be completed within defined timelines. All information & data pertaining to vendor registration now made available on RDSO Website.

What is New Online Vendor Registration System?

1. The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) is the research arm of Ministry of Railways.
2. The RDSO has launched “New Online Vendor Registration System” which provides major improvements and paradigm changes in the registration system over the earlier system.
3. 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 updating of online data, user-friendly interface etc. are the hallmarks of the new system.
4. This system was evolved after Minister of Railways & Coal, Piyush Goyal undertook a comprehensive review of the functioning of the RDSO.

Salient features of this new system are as follows:

1. The vendor need not come to RDSO for any activity related to his case for registration.
2. All activities in the 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 the earlier process and would help in reduction of cycle timelines.
4. The 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.

As per a government release, the 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 a 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.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2018 10:04 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).