Railways to set up 100 budget hotels: Minister

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) For commercial use of vacant land, the Railways has identified 100 locations for setting up budget hotels through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Minister of State for Railways R Velu told the Lok Sabha today.

The Railways has already constituted Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) for commerical development of railway land and air-space. So far, 92 sites have been entrusted to RLDA.

Bids for 29 sites have so far been invited by IRCTC, the Minister said replying to a barrage of queries during the Question Hour.

The bids for 20 budget hotels have been finalised and awarded to the successful bidders and nine others are being processed, he added.

The railways will not directly incur any expenditure on the budget hotels.

However, the revenue from the awarded 20 budget hotels is likely to be Rs 3823.01 crore over a period of 30 years.

UNI