Today's Cancelled Trains
Signalling System
08:38
Invitation to PSU's For Execution of Railway Projects on Competition Basis
Invitation to PSU's For Execution of Railway Projects on Competition Basis
Showing posts with label PSU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSU. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Thursday, 29 October 2015
Western Railway
17:59
Station Based E-Catering Servies now Available on 45 Major Stations
Station Based E-Catering Servies now Available on 45 Major Stations
In compliance of the Railway Budget Announcement 2015-16 Indian Railways had launched E-catering services through its PSU IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation) with the objective to facilitate passengers to book meals of their choice on their seats on trains. Initially starting with 28 non Pantry Car Trains, this train-based e-catering services is now available in 1516 trains.
Based on the response/feedback, received from the passengers and the need to further improve availability of good catering services available to travelling passengers, Ministry of Railways has decided to proliferate the existing train-based E-catering scheme additionally to station-based E-catering. In the first phase, the scheme of station based E-catering has been made available on pilot basis on 45 major stations. Under this extended scheme, travelling passengers would be allowed to order food of their choice from leading private caterers at an approaching station. Station-based E-Catering shall be only for Stations and not on moving trains.
The 45 Stations covered under this scheme are:
- Howrah,
- Sealdah,
- Guwahati,
- New Jalpaiguri,
- Patna,
- Bhubaneshwar,
- Vishakhapatnam,
- Mugalsarai,
- Kanpur Central,
- Lucknow Jn.,
- Varanasi,
- Jaipur,
- Bilaspur,
- Kharagpur,
- Allahabad,
- Lucknow (NR),
- Gorakhpur,
- Anand Vihar Terminal,
- H. Nizamuddin,
- New Delhi,
- Delhi,
- Amritsar,
- Chandigarh,
- Ludhiana,
- Secunderabad,
- Tirupati,
- Vijayawada,
- Chennai Central,
- Chennai Egmore,
- Ernakulam Jn,
- Calicut,
- Madurai Jn.,
- Thrissur,
- Tiruvananthapuram Central,
- Bangluru City,
- Yesvantpur,
- Nagpur,
- Pune,
- Agra Cantt.,
- Gwalior,
- Jhansi,
- Bhopal,
- Ahemdabad,
- Mumbai Central,
- Surat,
- Vadodara.
All trains passing through these 45 stations are now covered for services through E-Catering.In addition, IRCTC, also makes available budget food supplied by 'Jan Ahaar' and through its Food Plazas and Fast Food Units.
Based on the outcome of the pilot project, this station based E-catering scheme would accordingly be extended to cover more number of Stations.
IRCTC is only authorized company for booking and delivery of food at stations and in trains. For details/booking a meal, passengers may please log on to www.ecatering.irctc.co.in or call 1800-1034-139 or 0120-4383892/9.
Source :Business Standard
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Railway Minister
18:05
Rail Minister asks all PSUs to undertake more Railway projects
Rail Minister asks all PSUs to undertake more Railway projects
In a review meeting with the heads of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the administrative control of Railways, Prabhu also sought strong presence of all Railway PSUs on the social networking sites for dissemination of information to the public
New Delhi: Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu held a review meeting with the CMD/MD of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways. In addition, the meeting was attended by Chairman, Railway Board and other Board Members.
He also directed that all the CPSEs should make all out effort to show profit and hand over healthy dividend to the Railways. Turnover / Production targets fro the financial year 2015-16 should be exceeded. Each of the projects undertaken by them should be meticulously planned. The CAPEX targets should be met without fail. It should be examined whether the production units and workshops of Railways may adopt the method of profit and loss accounting.
In the review meeting with the heads of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the administrative control of railways, Prabhu also sought strong presence of all railway PSUs on the social networking sites for dissemination of information to the public.
All of them were asked to open their Facebook account and Twitter handle and inform the public about the work being done by these units, a senior Railway Ministry official said. The CPSEs have been asked to develop their own Facebook and Twitter handle and inform the public about the good work being done by them.
The Railways PSUs participated in the review meeting included: Container Corporation of India Ltd.(CONCOR), IRCON International Ltd., Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL), Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL),RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. (RCIL),RITES Ltd.,Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (DFCCIL), Burn Standard Company Ltd.,Braithwaite & Company Limited, Bharat Wagons Engineering Ltd. (BWEL), Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (KMRCL).
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Railway Minister
21:17
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu orders review of all catering contracts
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu orders review of all catering contracts
NEW DELHI: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has ordered a review of all catering contracts and blacklisting of companies involved in unfair and corrupt practices after the CBI unearthed an alleged scam in supply of packaged drinking water 'Rail Neer' and arrested two senior officials Sandeep Silas and M S Chalia.
The CBI raid against R K Associates has blown the lid off rampant corruption and near monopoly of the company in railway catering business and unholy nexus between senior railway officials and private caterers.
Over the years, railway catering has emerged as a lucrative business as contracts to provide food is valued at about Rs 2,000 crore a year. About 5.22 lakh meals are served every day by caterers in trains and railway-operated kiosks at stations.
The decision to outsource food business to private companies was based on sound business logic as catering is not the railways' core business. However, the system could not deliver.
The railways' attempt to consolidate its share of the profitable food business failed due to its ad-hoc experiments and 'unwise' intervention by political masters.
During her tenure as minister, Mamata Banerjee came out with a railway catering policy in 2010 which took away catering services from IRCTC, a railway PSU specially set up to provide such services. Today, railways handles the catering business itself.
Attempts to revamp the catering business were shot down by vested interests
Interestingly, it would be difficult to estimate the railway food business as the transporter doesn't maintain a separate account. The plan to ask passengers for a receipt of food served in mail and express trains, where the food bill is not part of the ticket fare, did not take off. The move was expected to prevent over-billing.
The alleged Rail Neer scandal also highlights the need for cleaning up the catering tendering process as many feel the current system is heavily tilted in favour of companies which have been in the business for years.
Source: The Economic Times
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Railway Minister
07:55
Indian Railways to partially offload Stake in some of its PSUs
Indian Railways to partially offload Stake in some of its PSUs
New Delhi: To mop up resources, the Indian Railways is considering the option of divesting stake in some of its PSUs, which will be routed back to build infrastructure.
The Railways has set a target to raise Rs.8.5 lakh crore over the next five years, of which 1 lakh crore will be invested in rolling stock, such as wagons, coaches and locomotives. It has already signed an agreement with LIC to raise ₹1.5 lakh crore for investment in infrastructure projects.
The move to partially offload stake in some of its public sector units (PSUs) was among the various options discussed by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in a recent meeting of the advisory board on financial matters, which includes KV Kamath, President, Development Bank of BRICs Countries and former Chairman, ICICI Bank; Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, State Bank of India; Rajiv Lall, Executive Chairman, IDFC; and Raghav Bahl, who heads Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd; and senior Railway officials.
Incidentally, the Railways has already asked its various public sector units to undertake valuations.
“The money from such stake sale could be routed as equity to form a joint venture company proposed to be set up with Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) as proposed in the railway budget. The total mobilised funds through such a non-banking finance company can be 10 times the funds,” said sources present in the meeting.
IRFC, a public sector unit, is the fund-raising arm of the Railways, and largely funds rolling stock.
CONCOR stake
The Railways is set to shed five per cent stake in Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), the only publicly listed Railways unit.
The other units where value can be unlocked are RITES, IRCON and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
But, the Railways is unlikely to sell stake in IRFC, with which Railways enters into annual agreements for repayments.
In this year’s budget, Prabhu had announced setting up an infrastructure fund, a holding company and a joint venture with an existing non-banking financial corporation of a public sector unit with IRFC, to raise long-term debt.
The debt can be raised from domestic as well as overseas sources, including multilateral and bilateral financial institutions keen on working with the Railways.
Another top railway official said that while many investors are waiting to put in money, the Railways has to first send investor-friendly signals.
