The tender for the business, which is a three-year contract, saw a four-way contest between Airtel , Jio, the Vodafone-Idea JV and state-run BSNL.

To bag Indian Railways’ telecom accounts, Reliance Jio Infocomm has emerged as the lowest bidder, leaving behind Airtel and Vodafone. For more than six years now, the only telecom provider for 3.78 lakh mobile phone connections used by railway staff in the closed user group (CUG) across the country has been Airtel, for which the bill is footed by the government. The tender for the business, which is a three-year contract, saw a four-way contest between Airtel, Jio, the Vodafone-Idea JV and state-run BSNL, reported IE. According to sources quoted in the report, the national transporter is used to paying nearly Rs 100 crore towards phone bills in the existing arrangement. Interestingly, the new prices offered by Jio brings down the total bill amount by about 30%, the report said. This means a saving of nearly Rs 30 crore!

The bids for this was opened earlier this month. Sources quoted in the report said that currently, the tender committee at Railway telecom PSU Railtel is reviewing the papers of the bidders and they further added that if no discrepancy is found, the railways will award the contract to the lowest bidder. At present, the services are being provided by Airtel on an extended tenure as the three year contract with the national transporter ended a few months ago. The extension period ends this month, they informed.

This time in the revised tender conditions, instead of 2G/3G, Indian Railways sought 4G/3G connections, which all the bidders met. The effect of Jio, which is the newest telecom entrant, was such that the tender conditions demanded free calls, which all the players offered. A senior Railtel official said that so it became a question of who was offering more data at low cost.

According to the sources, the requirement was four different types of monthly plans, based on seniority. In Indian Railways, along with senior officials, all the field employees involved in train operations, as well as safety performance, are also provided official mobile connection, such as drivers, station masters, guards, gangmen etc.

The sources further said that the four plans range between around Rs 120 and around Rs 75 per month and the only difference is in the amount of data offered in each plan. The report said that the upper limit of the plans offered was more or less similar for all the companies, however, Jio’s was the cheapest in the lower slab. According to an official, the amount of data, all the four telecom companies were offering for the amount of money is anyway much cheaper than what is available in the market.