IRCTC may keep reservation system intact for unreserved coaches

KEY STORY

• New Delhi: During an earnings call on Friday, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) said that it expects to keep the reservation fee intact for the unreserved coaches of the Indian Railways may continue even after the resumption of normal train services in the country.

• It said that Indian Railways may continue to keep the reservation system intact in long-distance trains for general(2S)class. However, the final decision regarding the continuation of keeping the reservation system in general class will be taken by the Ministry of Railways.

• Mahendra Pratap Mall, Chairman and Managing Director of IRCTC when being asked if he expects that once this COVID is out then fees will again be converted to underground tickets to which he replied, “I do not think so. Unreserved will largely be for passenger trains because these are long-distance trains, I think it will continue.”

• He further said that “Currently, almost 8 lakhs tickets per day through IRCTC, with COVID we were booking about 9 lakhs to 9.5 lakhs tickets per day.”

• IRCTC, the only entity authorised by Indian Railways to provide catering services, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations.

• After train services were suspended during the lockdown, the Indian Railways is still not operating in its full capacity. When operations started post the nationwide lockdown due to covid-19, the national transporter converted the unreserved coaches into sitting reserved coaches.

• Passengers have to fill in all the details like the address and mobile phone number for travelling in the 2S coaches which were not required during pre-covid times.

• Meanwhile, on Thursday reported 62% decline in net profit at Rs 78 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, as coronavirus kept most of the national transporter’s operations shut. It was Rs 206 crore in the year-ago period.

CONCLUSION

• Revenue from operations fell 69% to Rs 224 crore from Rs 716 crore in December 2019. However, on a sequential basis the revenue rose 151% from Rs 88.5 crore in September 2019.

  “The reduction in operating turnover is mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic …representations have been made to railway board for waiver of fixed commitments against various trains run by the company which could not be operated for the period up to October 16, 2020 during present pandemic, for which approval is awaited,” the company filing on exchanges said.