National Rail Museum in Delhi to be developed as an evening tourist destination

The Railway Ministry has drawn up plans to introduce a swanky restaurant in the National Rail Museum (NRM). It will be developed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) as an evening tourist destination.
The restaurant would offering a wide array of sumptuous cuisines.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 14 October 2016.

The restaurant would have a replica of the central dome portion of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai - this is a UNESCO World Heritage building. The IRCTC would also develop two other facilities in the museum complex - a light & sound Show and vintage hotels made from the coaches of 'Palace on Wheels' which is a luxurious train with royal trappings.
The restaurant will have a-la-carte dining options for the up-market segment and has a potential to generate revenues for the railways. Incidentally, the museum has a footfall of about 2,000 on weekdays and 5,000 on weekends and holidays.


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Senior Citizens of Jharkhand can travel at government expense to religious places

The Jharkhand government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to begin the chief minister's Mukhyamantri Tirth Darshan Yojana. This scheme will allow senior citizens of the BPL category to visit religious sites by train at state's expenses.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 7 September 2016.

Beneficiaries can avail of two religious trips in their lifetime - one within Jharkhand and one outside and, it is understood that the scheme might be launched on November 15, that is Statehood Day.
For a start, 1,000 devotees will be taken to Puri via train and the government will sponsor their food, accommodation, sight-seeing and medical requirements. Initially, two trains might run for the pilgrimage tour, but the entire travel package like sites to be visited, places where the trains would halt and other facilities would be decided by the government. AS explained by IRCTC, they are the facility provider and will provide whatever the state government wants.
As far as insurance and health facilities - in case of any death due to accident, the next to kin will get Rs 10 lakh. There will not be any special medical facility in the train, but necessary support will be provided at the stations. And, at the sites, guides and paramedics will be in attendance.


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Howrah and Sealdah stations are in the bottom 10 list of clean stations

Howrah and Sealdah stations in Kolkata are among the country's largest and busiest railway stations and have been ranked in the bottom 10 out of 32 used by more than 50,000 passengers daily. CST Mumbai and Chennai Central, which are in the same category, have been ranked in the top 10.
Nearly 8.5 lakh people use Howrah station each day while Sealdah handles about 12 lakh and, in comparison, CST Mumbai receives more than 15 lakh passengers every day and yet stays much cleaner.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 28 July 2016.

Howrah and Sealdah have been ranked "average" in a survey on cleanliness conducted by the railways across 407 stations. Out of the 407 stations surveyed, Howrah ranks 275, Sealdah is 346 and Kolkata station 131. CST Mumbai, which receives more footfall than Sealdah and Howrah, has been ranked 129 while Chennai Central stands eight notches higher at 121.
It has been revealed that both Howrah and Sealdah stations have dirty washrooms and the platforms are often littered with trash. Moreover, parcels of fish are ferried through the new terminal at Howrah station and water seeping out of them makes the platforms filthy. Also, scores of hawkers selling vegetables squat inside the subway that lead to the bus terminus from the old terminal - as a result, the area is dirtied.
Same for Sealdah - here also, much of the fish and vegetables arriving at the markets come through this station. The parameters used for the survey were cleanliness of ticketed areas, non-ticketed areas, toilets and waste management and the survey was commissioned by the Railway Board and conducted by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) along with a private agency.


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Odisha gives a once-in-a-lifetime offer of free pilgrimage to senior citizens

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched the free pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens in the state. He has flagged off the first pilgrimage train to Rameswaram and Madurai from the Berhampur railway station in Ganjam district. The train is carrying more than 1000 people from 10 southern Odisha districts and they are on a nine-day tour to the religious sites in south India.
The state government would bear the complete tour expenditure of devotees inclusive of travel, accommodation, and medical expenses and it would be arranged through trains and buses.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 26 July 2016.

This scheme is based on an announcement of the state government to make available a one-time financial assistance to senior citizens to undertake pilgrimage. It was a promise of the ruling Biju Janata Dal that had also promised it in its 2014 elections manifesto. This promise has now been fulfilled.
Thee are plans to send 2,000 more senior citizens on pilgrimage in next two phases from Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar railway stations. The scheme is applicable to senior citizens aged above 60 and they can travel to various pilgrim destinations including Haridwar-Rishikesh, Allahabad-Varanasi, and Rameswaram-Madurai.
Eligibility is for all those except those who pay income tax payee and those who are retired government employees. All others, irrespective of their religion, can avail the facility after attaining 60 years and can go on tours to holy places under the once-in-a-lifetime scheme. It will be a joint venture between the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) - an MOU has been signed for smooth management of the tour plans.


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Soon home cooked food by self help groups would be available for train travelers

Food available on trains has always been a sore point of the Indian Railways and the new Railway Minister is leaving no stone unturned to offer the best available food service to train travelers. After e-catering, he has now decided to rope in self-help groups to serve home coked food to train travelers. A pilot project has been launched in the Konkan region of Maharashtra for supply of local cuisine by SHGs to train travelers.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 14 April 2016.

As per the arrangement, two stations in the Konkan region - Kudal and Sawantwadi - have been identified for the pilot project.
It seems the Indian Railways have entered into a partnership with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to facilitate SHGs of farmers to supply local meals to train passengers. For this, two stations in the Konkan region - Kudal and Sawantwadi - have been identified for the pilot project.
In order to avail of this facility, passengers will have to order the meal online through IRCTC website during their journey. A similar initiative has been launched in Kerala also and plans are there are plans to gradually extend it to other stations and cover the whole country.
The pilot project is a part of the railway budget 2016-17 that had been announced by Minister Suresh Prabhu to explore the possibility of giving the choice of local cuisine to passengers. Indian Railways has already launched the e-catering facility that offers options to the passengers to book their meals online instead of depending on food supplied by contractors or pantry cars.


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Ambitious plans of IRCTC - Indian Railways target one lakh online meals per day

IRCTC is expecting rapid growth of e-business and has set its sights high - it aims to reach the target of one lakh online meal orders per day when, at present, it sees only about 3000 meals being booked online every day with 193 stations and 1516 trains covered under the e-catering policy. It has in its kitty about 81 vendors that include Haldiram's, Domino's Pizza, Bikanerwala, Wimpy, Kellog's and Chaayos. IRCTC also has seven food aggregators like Food Panda and Travel Khana who are a part of the e-catering business.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 3 April 2016.

In the opinion of IRCTC, the online food order on trains and at stations is catching up and, hence, the ambitious plan of one lakh order on a daily basis. It had been launched in September 2014 in a few selected trains as a pilot project and later, the e-catering concept was extended to more trains the next year. In October 2015, station-based e-catering was started at 45 stations.
The e-catering will be extended to 409 major stations and almost all mail/express trains in a phased manner and the passenger can book his meal through IRCTC website, mobile App, call centre and SMS and exercise the option of making the payment in advance or pay cash on delivery.


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