News Analysis India

Tag: IRCTC

  • IRCTC asked to restart sharing 50 pc convenience fee with Railway Ministry

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Railways has asked its online ticketing arm IRCTC to share 50 per cent of its revenue earned as a convenience fee from bookings on its website with the national transporter, an arrangement that had been discontinued since the pandemic.

    In a regulatory filing on Thursday, IRCTC informed SEBI that the Railways has said the revenue-sharing arrangement would be enforced from November 1. Convenience fees charged from customers generated a sizable revenue for both IRCTC and the Railways.

    The fee is not part of the rail fare. It is for the service of online ticket booking offered by the IRCTC. In 2014-15 when the revenue sharing ratio was 20-80, the Railway’s online ticketing and catering arm received a majority of the Rs 253 crore revenue.

    The following year, the revenue generated from this was Rs 552 crore with a 50-50 share arrangement. In 2016-17, with a similar revenue-sharing model, the fee generated Rs 362 crore as earning for the IRCTC-Railway combine.

    However, the convenience fee was discontinued thereafter and the duo did not earn any revenue from it till 2019.

    The IRCTC began charging the fee again during the coronavirus crisis mainly to boost its revenues during the slowdown. The Railways, however, gave up its share.

    In 2019-20, IRCTC earned Rs 352 crore from convenience fees and in 2020-21, it earned Rs 299 crore. Till August this year, the IRCTC had earned Rs 224 crore.

    “In compliance with the Regulation 30 of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, it is to be informed that Ministry of Railways vide above-referred letter has conveyed its decision to share the revenue earned from convenience fee collected by IRCTC in the ratio of 50:50 w.e. f November 1, 2021,” IRCTC stated in the filing.

  • IRCTC mulls region-specific delicacies on the menu for train passengers

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Train passengers will soon be able to savour delicacies and famous products of cities on their route on board, with the railways planning to upgrade its catering service.

    Officials said once the system is in place, one can buy oranges of Nagpur or Alphonso mangoes of Ratnagiri, Raigad, and Konkan regions through the e-catering service of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

    Other items will be confectionaries from famous outlets or brands such as Agra’s Petha, Gajak from Morena, Rasgulla of Bikaner, and Anarsa – a popular delicacy from Gaya. “Shortly, we are going to add famous local food items and products to our catering service. These will be available at 1,200 important stations. The service can be availed anytime, anywhere,” said an official.

    According to officials, encouraging response and record bookings have prompted the company to introduce city-specific products, which are in demand. The on-board e-catering facility was resumed after a long break in August, which was suspended due to the COVID pandemic outbreak.

    The number of bookings is going up gradually. The corporation has set a target of 20,000 orders per day. During the weekend, the IRCTC received a record number of meal orders – 32,000 – from October 8-10.

    “The online food service was reintroduced recently. Passengers have started ordering food through e-catering service. Response has been good. We already had tie-ups with popular multinational fast-food joints and Indian brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, Dominos, Haldiram, Bikanerwala, Sagar Ratna and others. This service was successful but halted due to Covid. Around 32,000 meals were booked on the weekend, which was the highest so far after the resumption of service,” added the official.

    IRCTC has teamed up with over 500 restaurants to serve passengers.

  • Here’s how you can purchase bus tickets on IRCTC portal, mobile app from now

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  To resolve last connectivity issues, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation has integrated bus booking service with its existing portal and mobile app being used for rail reservations. 

    At present, booking of more than 50,000 buses of the private operators and state road transport corporations is available for 22 states and three union territories.

    Though trial run of the bus ticket booking was launched in January, it couldn’t garner desired results due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Corporation has added new features to attract more users.

    “Travellers now can book tickets to small cities or destinations, which were not part of the network. We will be adding more destinations in future based on feedback from the passengers. Another significant feature, which  IRCTC has introduced, is seat booking for intermediate point or location; short distance or a destination falling on a particular route. Earlier, the booking was allowed only from one point to another,” said IRCTC spokesperson Anand Jha.

    As the Covid situation is improving and people have started travelling, he said, the number of daily bookings has also increased.

    “During initial phase after the soft launch, 10-50 reservations were made. However, after the service’s full-fledged operations, around 1,000 tickets are being bought online everyday through IRCTC. Daily train booking has also improved significantly, which is 14 lakh per day.” 

    The IRCTC is eying 20,000 bus reservations per day. They said that gradually, the company would add more cities and states such as Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, which have been left out due to restrictions, to its network.

  • Rajya Sabha MP writes to railways over non-renewal of contracts of hospitality supervisors employed with IRCTC

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A Rajya Sabha member on Friday wrote to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal questioning the non-renewal of contracts of hospitality supervisors employed with the IRCTC, and said they offered their services to the national transporter at the “peak” of the COVID-19 crisis.

    RJD MP Manoj Jha said he is writing on behalf of these workers who had been hired by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on April 23, 2019, for supervision of catering services, quality inspection in trains as well as catering units on Indian Railway premises.

    “These contractual employees gave their best to the Indian Railways even during the peak of COVID-19 as they were actively engaged in the management and supervision of food delivery services in ‘Shramik Special’ trains run by the Indian Railways,” he said.

    ‘Shramik Special’ trains were run by the railways last year following the COVID-19 outbreak to ferry migrants, who were stuck in different parts of country due to restrictions, back to their home states.

    “To our utter shock, I am informed by these employees from various locations that they have been categorically told by IRCTC authorities to search for new jobs, adding further that after 20 days they would not be part of the service anymore,” Jha said in his letter.

    “The feeble argument from the IRCTC is that they were hired on a two-year contract which is ending now,” he said.

    Jha said that these supervisors are trained hoteliers and many have professional degrees in hospitality.

    “We all know that the hotel industry was among the worst-affected during the COVID crisis and therefore, it is unimaginable that they would be employed by the hotel industry amidst an unprecedented crisis,” the RJD Rajya Sabha member said.

    “I remember during the course of an intervention by me in the Budget Session of Parliament, you had emphatically assured that nobody shall be terminated from their jobs,” Jha said in his letter to Goyal.

    The MP said the non-renewal of services of these men and women was against the assurance given by the minister in Parliament.

    “This goes against the assurance given by @RailMinIndia on the floor of the house…shall do whatever we can,” Jha also tweeted.

    He urged Goyal to look into the matter with utmost urgency and save the jobs of hundreds of hospitality supervisors engaged with the IRCTC.

    Earlier in a letter, dated June 25, to all railway zones, the IRCTC informed that there was no requirement for these contractual workers under the present circumstances and they be given one month notice and their contracts be terminated.

    “The requirement of supervisor (hospitality) engaged on contract basis has been reviewed in the revised catering model and it has been decided that under the present circumstances, services of supervisor (hospitality), engaged on contract basis are no more required,” the letter stated.

    This virtually meant job losses for around 560 such workers.

    However, after the workers took to social media and raised the issue, the IRCTC board rolled back the decision, but maintained that their two-year contracts are unlikely to be renewed.

    Many such workers took to social media to air their grievances.

    “@PMOIndia @RailMinIndia we are Hospitality supervisors working under IRCTC (Indian Railways). They fire us. So please save our job & family,” tweeted Naveen Kumar.

    “Sir, In this pandemic situation we don’t have any other option for survival. So request you to please do something to save our job,” tweeted Rahul Mona tagging the Railway Minister. IRCTC spokesperson Anand Kumar Jha said that currently, catering services in special trains are limited to sale of ready to eat food, packaged drinking water, tea and coffee, among others.

    Base kitchens are non-operational and the scope of work for hospitality supervisors is very limited, the official said.

    Regarding the period of contract of hospitality supervisors, he said that action is being taken as per terms and conditions of their contracts.

  • IRCTC released list of e-catering service only in Bilaspur station of Chhattisgarh

    IRCTC has released the list of railway stations to facilitate e-catering in special trains running under the unlock process between the corona transition. In the first phase, a list of the names of 57 railway stations in the country has been released. But only Bilaspur railway station of Chhattisgarh has been included in it.
    Raipur station has not been ranked in the first list. On the other hand, if we talk about the Bilaspur rail zone, in addition to Bilaspur, the name of Gondia has also been included.
    While the name of only one railway station in Chhattisgarh has been included in the list of 57 stations across the country, 9 railway stations in Madhya Pradesh have been included. Raipur station is currently not included in this list. However, railway officials say that for this they will also write a letter to IRCTC.

  • IRCTC to resume cooked food supply to passengers in trains soon: Eastern Railway

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Cooked food supply to passengers in trains under e-catering services, which were suspended as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19, will resume soon in the Eastern Railway zone, an official said here on Sunday.

    The e-catering services will be restarted soon at Howrah, Sealdah, Kolkata, Durgapur, Asansol, Malda and Bhagalpur stations under the jurisdiction of the ER, he said.

    There are plans to add Barddhaman, Bolpur and Jamalpur in the list of stations from where the e-catering services are provided, the ER spokesperson said.

    With the resumption of several long-distance and special trains, there was a growing demand to resume the services for supplying “hot, healthy and hygienic food to the passengers in the trains by nominated vendors of IRCTC”, he said.

    The Railway Board has allowed IRCTC to resume the services at selected stations, he said, adding that this will be provided in strict adherence to the COVID protocols.

    Under e-catering, services are provided by a large number of food aggregators empanelled by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Ltd, he said.

    The food supply services are also made available from outlets at selected stations, the official added.

  • IRCTC clarifies its comments have been quoted incorrectly

    Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has issued a clarification saying, a news report has been published in a section of media that the government has reached out to Sikhs through IRCTC emails but comments of IRCTC have not been quoted correctly and mails have been sent to all respective communities.

    “It may be informed to all that comments of IRCTC have not been quoted correctly and mails have been sent to all irrespective any particular community,” IRCTC stated.This is not the first instance. Earlier also, such activities have been undertaken by IRCTC to promote government welfare schemes in the public interest, IRCTC informed.

  • Railways made changes in online ticket booking

    Indian Railways has made a change in online ticket booking. Under this change, another chart will be made half an hour before the train leaves. The advantage of this will be that even if the seats remain vacant at the last moment, needy passengers will get tickets. Let me tell you that the first chart was prepared four hours before the departure of the train. In such a situation, those people who had booked tickets online and for some reasons could not travel, then those seats would remain empty. Now this will not happen under the new rule.

    IRCTC will now make the first chart train four hours before departure. After this, a second chart will also be made half an hour before the train leaves. Tickets can be purchased online and offline before the second chart is created. Which will be given on a first come, first served basis. IRCTC has said in its statement that on the appeal of the zonal railways and in view of the convenience of the railway passengers, it has been decided that the second reservation chart will be prepared half an hour before the departure of the train.

    Tickets can be purchased both online and at the ticket counter before a second chart is created. Under the new changes, the Railways have also made changes in their software. Explain that the passenger trains are running canceled due to Corona virus scramble, but considering the resumption of services and the festive season, the Railways has decided to run special trains.