Introduction

The Railways Stores Department is the nodal agency for bulk procurement of materials on behalf of various departments of Railways in consistent with the economy & efficiency and also in a timely manner.

Briefly, the policy underlying is to make the purchases of stores for public service in such a way as to encourage the development of the industries of the country to the utmost possible extent consistent with economy and efficiency and with this end in view the order in which preference is to be given in making purchases has been laid down as under: -

• Articles which are produced in the form of raw materials or manufactured in India from indigenous raw materials.
• Articles fully or partially manufactured indigenously from imported material.
• Articles of foreign manufacture held in stock in India.
• Articles manufactured abroad which need to be specially imported.