Fighting to stay in existence, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation Limited (IRCTC) will be slashing charges on booking
e-tickets to match the competition its parent body, the Indian Railways,
has decided to throw at it by launching a parallel online passenger
ticket reservation system.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget announcement to allow the
Railways to launch a new portal and sell tickets at lower booking
charges has made the IRCTC just a tourism promotional venture. It has
already been shorn of its food catering business.
The IRCTC, however, has expressed its unwillingness to bow out of the
e-ticket selling business without giving its parent body a fight,
deciding to sell tickets at the same reduced service charge that the
Railways propose to levy to hook passengers to its portal.
The Minister announced that the service charge on A/C tickets will be
Rs.10 and Rs.5 for sleeper class tickets — lower by 50 per cent of the
charge currently levied for the two categories of tickets. The IRCTC too
proposes to bring its rates down by a similar amount.
Yields revenue
With the Railways proposing to launch the new portal in the next
financial year, the IRCTC is pondering its own date to pre-empt the loss
of business. As of now, the IRCTC sells 3-lakh to 3.5-lakh tickets
daily and gets handsome revenue.
Like in the food catering business, the IRCTC has come under much
criticism over the sale of tickets, particularly the way the Tatkal
tickets are cornered by the brokers with the general public unable to
even access the server and book tickets on their own.
The Railways had received more than 1,200 complaints against the poor
quality of food served during the 10 months of the current financial
year itself.
The Railways has now taken upon itself to set right the system.
The fact, however, remains that 154 long-distance trains are yet to be provided with pantry car facilities.
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