"The bank invited sealed bids from eligible bidders, for procurement ofnetwork equipment and facility management services. The procurementenvisages supply, installation and commissioning of routers and modems to beinstalled at various branches and offices covered under the bank's networkplan," the tender said. The tender will be available in five differentlanguages - French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish - apart fromEnglish. tendertimes.com has provided hyperlink to the Allahabad Bank's homepage on the Net, from this tender notice.

"This is for the first time that any Indian tendering authority is makingthe bid documents globally available through a public Internet domain. Thiswill enable interested bidders to download the complete set of bid documentseasily from any part of the world," the press release from Tender Timesstated. Allahabad Bank is also not losing any revenue, as the bidder willhave to pay the value of the bid document at the time of submitting the biddocuments to the bank authority.

The bank management feels that this will ensure greater transparency in thebank's tendering process and will avoid any incidence of non-availability ofbid documents. Bikash Ghosh, general manager of the bank's computer policyand planning department said that the move was taken, considering the needof the day. "We have marched one step forward in the right direction. Thisis the progressive outlook of the bank as it intends to make the biddocuments globally available. This is the requirement of the day,"he said.

Even Ghosh could not confirm whether Allahabad Bank was the firstnationalised bank to place a tender on the Net. However, he added: "We havefaith in the technology and we wanted to utilise the latest tools ofinfotech for providing better service to the people as well as to thenation." According to tendertimes.com's project head CV Aiyar, a tender onthe Net only ensures greater participation. "Besides, the bank is likely toreceive competitive bids from firms of international repute as well," headded.