Company sources said Jessop was the lowest bidder in the global tender floated by the Indian Railways in October last year for procurement of six on-track ballast cleaning machines. The tender, in which the only other participant was Ghaziabad-based Balasser India Ltd, opened on March 23 this year.

"All terms and conditions of these two bids were same but our prices were lower by around Rs 20 lakh. The total amount was around Rs 72 crore but still the order was not placed on us," company sources said.

Jessop, that went to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) with a Rs 368.6 crore revival package in May 1998, is desperately trying to turn around. Though its core competency is in wagon manufacturing, it is diversifying into new areas. One such area is the track cleaning machine, for which it has a tieup with a Czech Republican company Mth Praha.

When Jessop officials realised that the order was unlikely to come into their kitty, they referred it to their higher officials in the department of heavy industries. The matter was taken up by former Union industry minister Sikander Bhakt. He wrote to the former Union railways minister of state, Ram Naik, urging him to look into the files.

In a reply dated September 24, Naik assured Bakht that the matter will be reconsidered. "However, we came to know that the order has been placed with Balasser India about a few weeks back but we are yet to receive any official confirmation," sources said.

Meanwhile, a similar global order was again floated by the Indian Railways for procuring four more track cleaning machines. The last date of submitting the tender was Friday, October 15.

Jessop's officials said: "Our prices are already known to our competitors. Now they can quote less to compete our offer. Moreover, if the Railway Board has already placed the earlier order, we doubt whether there will be any change this time. The whole process in unfair."

Sources in the Indian Railways told The Financial Express that the board is not too happy with Jessop's handling of wagon orders. "They are quite slow on supplying the wagons. So there is no point in burdening the company further with new orders and that too sophisticated ones," sources said.

Jessop's official feel differently. "We deserved the orders because we were the lowest bidder. We will put up the matter to the CVC and also to the new Union railways minister for justice," the official said.

The company is also considering modifying its revival package, which is going awry due to poor market conditions. The package envisaged a cash profit during 1998-99 after a sales of Rs 62 crore but ended with a cash loss against a sales of Rs 50 crore.