Newly introduced mechanism to help make e – auctioning even more transparent

Lucknow: In a new move, E-auction for commercial properties of Railways and NFR (Non fare revenue) has been made more accessible through any bank with the introduction of VAN (Virtual Account Number) facility for e-Auction.

In order to make its e-auction system more convenient and transparent and to provide opportunities to more and more bidders, Indian Railways has included the process of VAN (Virtual Account Number) in Railways. As it is known that under the e-Auction system, till now the bidders were required to deposit EMD through lien marking mechanism to participate in the e-Auction, for which it is necessary to have a mandatory current account with State Bank of India.

To further simplify this process, an alternative mechanism called VAN (Virtual Account Number) mechanism has now been implemented by including a new mechanism, under which the seller can register for NEFT/RTGS transactions from any of his existing bank accounts.

Deposit money into his virtual account through online mode, and then participate in the e-auction based on the account balance. His VAN account gets activated within a few hours of depositing the one-time registration fee, and the firm can start participating in auctions immediately thereafter.

This is an additional facility and the bidders may continue to use the lien marking mechanism. A user manual for use of VAN system has also been published, which is available in the Learning Center (User Manual) section of IREPS. account number) can now be easily onboarded.

This facility will be very useful for ATM auction, as other banks who were not willing to open current account with State Bank of India can now participate in ATM auction through VAN mechanism.