Railways' new facility for hungry passengers

Chennai, Apr 27 (UNI) Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) will set up about 20 ''Rail Ratna'' brand budget hotels in the southern region, for which sites have been awarded at Udhagamandalam, Kanyakumari, Madurai and Rameswaram, to major players in the hotel industry.

Regional Director IRCTC V Sriram told newsmen here today that the budget hotels would be on public-private partnership pattern and constructed by private parties under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme, for a period of 30 years.

The profit sharing ratio would be 60:40, he added.

He said these four budget hotels would be set up at a cost of Rs 25-30 crore each. The hotels would be ready before the end of next year.

He said such hotels would also be set up at Chennai (two), Trivandrum Central, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Calicut, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli.

He said IRCTC's annual turnover for the year 2006-07 was expected to cross Rs 500 crore mark as against Rs 487 crore the last financial year.

He said IRCTC was also setting up major base kitchens for supply of low cost, high quality, fast moving local varieties of food in all trains and for visitors to railway stations. Cell kitchens or base kitchens would also be set up at Chennai, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Katpadi, Jolarpet, Arakonam, Thruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Palakkad and Erode.

He said they had also been ordered to take over and streamline the supply of bedrolls in Air Conditioned coaches. Out of 72 trains.

the IRCTC was in the process of taking over this job in 46 trains.

The IRCTC was also setting up launderettes at Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Nagercoil and Bangalore to ensure quality and hygiene in bedrolls.

UNI