The eProcurement projects of two more departments in the Government of Andhra Pradesh - Panchayati Raj and AP State Road Corporation (APSRTC) - have been formally launched with the respective departments releasing relevant tenders online.

The state government, as part of its e-governance initiatives, had issued orders for the implementation of eProcurement in the departments of Irrigation, Roads & Buildings, APSRTC, APTS, Panchayati Raj Engineering, APHMHIDC, Public Health Engineering and Social Welfare in March 2003. The government stated that all the existing rules applicable to the processing of conventional tenders are applicable to the bids to be secured through eProcurement.

"With the successful implementation of the project we hope to drive transparency and process efficiency in the works that we offer in this space besides saving on costs. Through this project, we wish to empower the small and medium contractors at panchayat level to effectively participate in the department's procurement process. We will be offering tenders worth 400 crore before the end of this financial year," said V Prabhu, Engineer-in-Chief, Panchayati Raj.

"There is going to be tremendous savings for APSRTC, as the department procures spare parts and materials almost to the tune Rs. 200 crore a year. We plan to put tenders worth Rs. 50 crore before the end of this fiscal," said RP Singh, former MD, APSRTC.

C1 India Pvt. Ltd. is the enabler of the eProcurement project for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The project was initiated in June 2002 and eight departments of the government have successfully gone live till date.

"We are working towards implementing the project for more departments, the project for more departments, as there is a very favorable response from departments where eProcurement has gone live. We also plan to take this project to other States after the successful implementation in the key departments in AP," said Vivek Agarwal, COO and President, Commerce One India.