Public procurement of goods and services touched Rs 6,894 crore on government buying portal GeM in April alone on account of steps taken by the platform such as rapid onboarding of buyers and sellers across India and development of custom features for large players, a senior official said on Tuesday. The Government e-Market (GeM) portal was launched on August 9, 2016, for online purchases of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.

“The total gross merchandise value of the orders placed on GeM platform in April was Rs 6,894 crore,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GeM Prashant Kumar Singh told .

Singh said this value exceeds the value of procurement done over the platform in June quarter and September quarter of the previous financial year, and is a milestone in GeM’s journey as the national public procurement platform for India.

“GeM was able to achieve this due to its focussed efforts to rapidly onboard buyers and sellers across India, the e-marketplace’s diverse and growing catalog of offerings for our buyers and the development of custom features and functionalities for the benefit of large buyers like the Railways, Defence and CPSUs,” he added.