TCS, Wipro eyeing $522 mn rail deal

Indian technology firms including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro are in pursuit of up to 25 billion rupees ($522 million) outsourcing contract from Indian Railways, the Economic Times said.

State-owned Indian Railways plans to procure a human resources management system and other modules for integrating and automating its payroll, accounting and pension functions, the newspaper said on Monday.

The organisation plans to spend around $1.5 billion over the next 2-3 years on technology, it said.

"We will be coming out with a request for proposal very soon. The idea is to have build-operate-transfer models with the vendors," the paper quoted an unidentified senior railway official as saying.

A spokeswoman for TCS declined to comment on the report, while Wipro officials were not immediately available. Indian Railways also plans to outsource its train scheduling and management system, in a deal valued at around 4.5 billion rupees, the paper said.

TCS, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam are also bidding for this project, it said.