The IRCTC would also provide wheelchair
services to the needy, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said. This is for the
first time IRCTC is offering such services to its customers, Yadav added.
Passengers travelling by
Tejas Express trains on the Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad routes can now
enjoy facilities including hotel bookings, taxi and baggage pick-and-drop among
others. The service is being offered by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC).
Apart from these, the
IRCTC, an Indian Railway subsidiary, would also provide wheelchair services to
the needy, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav told reporters on Monday in New
Delhi. This is for the first time IRCTC is offering such services to its
customers, Yadav said.
"The IRCTC has come up with so many things. They can
provide food of your choice, provide taxi facility from house to the station
and station to the house, baggage services like picking up baggage from home to
station, entertainment services, provide wheelchair. They are free to do
anything," the Railway Board Chairman told media.
The Railway Board chairman further said the railways would soon
invite private companies to operate trains in the near future. He said just
like airport is run by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and different
aviation companies run their flights on its premises in different segments,
under set procedures, similarly, all over the world private train companies
will operate in the same way.
"It will take time but we have decided that we will work
towards this. We have started talking to stakeholders and a lot of companies
have shown interest. The Indian Railway will continue to run the trains, but at
some point of time we will have to give them to private operators where they
will provide services. Just to prove the concept we have already approved two
trains to be given to IRCTC," Yadav said.
Safety will be under the purview of the railways, the Railway
Board chairman said, adding that "locomotives and guards will be with the
railways, but all on board services will be with the train operator which in
this case is IRCTC."
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