The West Bengal government on Monday, 3 November 2026 announced that e-tendering will be mandatory across 25 state government departments effective 3 November, in a bid to accelerate project completion and improve transparency in public procurement. The directive was issued through a formal notification by the State Finance Department, signed by Additional Chief Secretary P.K. Mishra.

What the Notification Says

The order states that all new tenders issued by the 25 departments and their subordinate branch offices must henceforth be routed exclusively through a newly launched e-tender portal. According to the notification, the initiative was mooted to 'ensure timely and effective implementation of various schemes' and 'ensure transparency' in the tendering system.

The new portal had initially been launched on a trial basis in December 2025 via a special memorandum of the State Finance Department. On 12 August 2026, its scope was expanded to select departments, including the Public Works Department, before the current full-scale rollout.

Departments Covered Under the Mandate

The 25 departments now brought under mandatory e-tendering include the Agriculture and Agricultural Marketing Department, Animal Husbandry Development Department, School Education Department, Higher Education Department, Information Technology Department, Tourism Department, Housing Department, Labour Department, Fisheries Department, Women and Child Welfare Department, Disaster Management Department, Food Processing Department, Prison Administration Department, Justice Department, and several others spanning consumer protection, cooperatives, industries, fire services, and home affairs.

Government's Stated Objectives

'The main objective of this step is to speed up the tender process and create a common digital infrastructure across all departments,' a state finance department official said. The official added that the new portal would 'increase transparency in government work and reduce delays to a great extent as it becomes operational,' and that all concerned departments had been instructed to follow the new rules strictly from Tuesday, 3 November.

Officials also noted that all necessary data from the old portal is being migrated to the new system to ensure continuity for ongoing procurement processes.

Context and Background

The move is part of a broader push by state governments across India to digitise public procurement and curb irregularities in contract awards. West Bengal's phased approach — piloting in December 2025, extending to the Public Works Department in August 2026, and now scaling to 25 departments simultaneously — suggests a calibrated rollout intended to manage transition risks. Notably, this is one of the more comprehensive single-order e-procurement mandates issued at the state level in recent years, covering departments as varied as school education and prison administration in one sweep.

Whether the portal's technical infrastructure can handle simultaneous migration from legacy systems across all 25 departments will be closely watched in the coming weeks.