Satyam may win the bid for a railways project to offer an asset management solution based on SAP business software for four locomotive sheds. The value of the bids is not known. TCS and Wipro were also among the bidders.

The contract is the first of a series of outsourcing deals worth Rs 2,000 crore ($400 million) offered by the railways over the next couple of months. Other important projects for the company include a Rs 1,677 crore ($335 million) bid to computerise the Employee State Insurance Corporation and provide smart cards to 15 million industrial workers, and another deal worth more than Rs 1,000 crore ($200 million) with the Indian government for passport services.

Government departments and state-owned companies plan to spend Rs 10,000 crore ($2 billion) during the current fiscal year. The sector plans to invest Rs 9,000 crore ($1.8 billion) in IT hardware and software next year. However, these estimates may change as the plan is currently under review.

Bidding is expected to become more competitive for the rest of the deals. The railways plan to spend Rs 8,000 crore ($1.6 billion) on IT over the next five years and would opt for a multi-vendor strategy. It will outsource three more contracts worth Rs 450-500 crore ($90-$100 million) each over the next few months to automate and integrate its finance and payroll functions, materials management and software-aided train scheduling. X

Check Out
Economic Times
IT Examiner - Railway seeks new kind of tender
IT Examiner - Indian Railways outsources helpline
IT Examiner - Indian railways gets first GSM-R based signalling system
IT Examiner - Satyam to review hiring projections