The Hindu : Rail bookings through Internet by year-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Rail bookings through Internet by year-end

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JULY 15. Railway ticket booking through the Internet is likely to come into force in Chennai by the year-end. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which will undertake the Internet ticket booking on behalf of the railways, will deliver the tickets to passengers, the Corporation Managing Director, M.N. Chopra, said here today.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Chopra said the Corporation would make available this facility in Delhi from this month-end, which would be extended to Chennai and other metropolis before the year-end.

Mr. Chopra, who is here in connection with the inauguration of the multi-cuisine `food plaza' at Chennai Central, said the Corporation had plans to start 50 plazas in major platforms in the country during this financial year. The aim of such food plazas was to upgrade the quality of food in the railways.

The new initiative would not in any way affect the existing departmental restaurants which would continue to function as usual. The corporation was only giving a variety of choice to customers.

The Railway Ministry's policy was to hive off all its catering activities and hand them over to the IRCTC. Already, the corporation had taken over catering in 60 major trains in the country.

Referring to the price of eatables in these plazas, he said it would be fixed by the franchisees in consultation with the corporation. Ultimately, it was the quality which would decide the market and the plazas had to offer quality food if they wanted to sustain the market.

Referring to tourism, he said at present the corporation had three packages. Tourist operators could charter a full train, a full coach or a few berths. Last year, the corporation had bookings for 31 chartered trips, and provided about 30,000 berths for various destinations. For example, the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation was operating a tourist special from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram. There were demands for chartered trips between Ahmedabad and Goa, Delhi to Chennai and Rajdhani-type specials from Mumbai to Delhi. Tourists and operators were approaching the corporation for their trouble-free travel.

The corporation's `Railneer' project would be launched before the year-end as a modern plant was being set up for the project. He said there had been a steady increase in the revenue of the corporation. The revenue would increase three-fold from the present Rs. 4 crores, he added.

The Southern Railway General Manager, V. Anand, who inaugurated the new food plaza, said Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil would soon have such plazas.

Meanwhile, employees of the departmental restaurant in Central, staged a demonstration protesting against the new food plaza. They feared that the railways' initiative was to make departmental restaurants loss-making units and ultimately close them.

However, the General Manager allayed their apprehension by assuring them that there was no move to close the departmental restaurants. On the other hand, the corporation would take over all these stalls in a phased manner, including the employees.

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