Dear Shareholders,
It gives us great pleasure to present, the 24th Annual Report on business
and operations of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited and its Audited
Statements of Accounts for the financial year ended March 31, 2023 (FY'23), together with
the Auditors' Report and Comments on the Accounts by the Comptroller and Auditor General
(CAG) of India. The detailed financial and operational performance of the Company is
produced in the report.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
We feel delighted to convey that the Company reported highest Revenue
from Operations for the financial year 2022-23 and also registered its highest ever net
profit. The summarised financial performance of the Company during F.Y.2022-23 along with
the corresponding performance of F.Y.2021-22 are mentioned below: Amount (Rs. in Lakhs)
Particulars |
F.Y. 2022-23 |
F.Y. 2021-22 |
% age Increase/ (Decrease) |
Revenue from Operations |
3,541.57 |
1,879.48 |
88.52 |
Total Income |
3,661.90 |
1,952.30 |
87.36 |
EBITDA (Profit Before Exceptional Items, Finance Cost, Tax, |
1,396.65 |
953.56 |
47.11 |
Depreciation & Amortisation) |
|
|
|
Depreciation |
53.73 |
48.99 |
9.68 |
Profit Before Tax & Exceptional Items |
1,326.81 |
893.52 |
49.18 |
Profit before tax |
1,354.01 |
889.51 |
52.93 |
Provision for Tax |
348.13 |
225.82 |
54.16 |
Profit after tax |
1,005.88 |
663.69 |
52.51 |
Interim Dividend |
280 |
160 |
75.00 |
Final Dividend |
160 |
80 |
33.33 |
General Reserve |
35 |
35 |
- |
Reserves & Surplus |
2,318.40 |
1,723.88 |
35.55 |
Net Worth |
2,478.40 |
1,883.88 |
32.51 |
Earnings Per Share (Rs.) |
12.57 |
8.30 |
52.55 |
Capital Structure
As on March 31, 2023, the authorized share capital of the Company stood at Rs. 250
Crores consisting of 125 Crores equity shares of Rs. 2/- each and paid-up share capital of
the Company was Rs. 160 Crores consisting of 80 crore equity shares of Rs. 2/- each.
During the year under consideration, the Company has not issued any shares.
The details of dematerialisation of shares, Demat Suspense Account / Unclaimed Suspense
Account are provided in the Corporate Governance Report, as annexed to this report.
Disinvestment through Offer For Sale (OFS)
During FY 2022-23, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM),
Ministry of Finance, issued directives for disinvestment of upto 5% of paid-up equity
capital in the Company through "Offer for Sale (OFS) of shares by Promoters through
stock exchanges" method.
In addition to the above, Employee-OFS was also announced for disinvestment of
40,00,000 equity shares (0.5%) of face value of Rs. 2 each to the eligible employees of
the Company at a
price of Rs. 680 per equity share. However, Nil applications were received under the
IRCTC Employe-OFS.
Through aforesaid transactions, the Ministry of Railways, being the Promoter,
disinvested 4,00,00,000 equity shares, diluting 5% of its stake in the Company. The
proceeds of OFS amounting to Rs. 2,726.87/- Crores were deposited with DIPAM, the Ministry
of Finance, Government of India.
Shareholding of the President of India (PoI)
As a result of the aforesaid offer for sale, the President of India's holding in IRCTC
has been reduced to 62.40% against 67.40% of the paid up equity share capital of the
Company. Subsequent to the OFS, President of India (PoI) holds 49,91,72,170 Equity shares
in the Company with face value of Rs. 2 each.
Dividend
Your Company takes pride in being a consistent dividend paying company since its
incorporation.
In pursuance to the requirements of Regulation 43A of the Securities and Exchange Board
of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015
("LODR"), your Company has formulated a Dividend Distribution Policy and is
available on the Company's website with web link https://www.irctc.com/assets/images/IRCTC_DIVIDEND%20
D I S T R I B U T I O N % 2 0 P O L I C Y- _ 3 1 . 0 7. 2 0 1 9 _ C B % 2 0
Comments%20[05.08.2019].pdf
The Board of Directors had declared an interim dividend of Rs. 3.50/-per equity share
(i.e. 175% on the paid-up share capital of Rs. 160 Crores) amounting to Rs. 280 Crores on
the paid-up share capital ofH 160 Crores, in February 2023. The said interim dividend was
paid to all the shareholders in March 2023. Further, the Board of Directors in its meeting
held in May, 2023 recommended, a final dividend (in addition to the interim dividend) of
Rs. 2/- per equity share (i.e. 100% on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs. 160 Crores)
amounting to Rs. 160 Crores, out of profit for the year 2022-23, subject to approval of
the shareholders in the AGM.
With this, the total dividend for the FY 2022-23 would aggregate to Rs. 440 Crores
(i.e. 275% on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs. 160 Crores) which works out to 43.74
% of the post-tax profits for 2022-23 and 17.75% of Networth as at March 31, 2023.
The declaration of dividend by the Company for the financial year 2022-2023 is in
compliance with the guidelines issued by the Department of Investment and Public Asset
Management (DIPAM), which prescribes that the minimum dividend to be paid for the year
should be at least 5% of net worth or 30% of profit after tax, whichever is higher.
Unclaimed Dividend
No amount is due for transfer to IEPF and details of unclaimed dividend as on March 31,
2023 are available on the website of the Company, and is also disclosed in the Corporate
Governance report.
Transfer to Reserves |
During 2022-23, the Company transferred Rs. 35 Crores to General reserves. |
IRCTC's Rank at Stock Exchanges (BSE and NSE) |
Based on the market capitalization of the Company at the end of the financial year
2022-23, your Company was positioned at 102nd and 100th on BSE and
NSE respectively. |
Company's contribution by way of revenue share to Ministry of Railways |
The Company also contributes by way of revenue share to Ministry of Railways (MoR) and
the total share of such contribution was Rs. 704.90 Crores during the year as against Rs.
432.18 Crores in FY 2021-22. Contribution to the revenue of (MoR) comprises of Haulage
Charges, Railway Share and Dividend. |
Employee Stock options |
Your Company has not provided any Employee Stock Option, therefore, disclosure
requirement in relationto ESOP under Rule 12(9) and Rule 16(4) of the Companies (Share
Capital and Debentures) Rules, 2014 is not applicable. |
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE |
Your Company's business is broadly divided into four business segments as produced
below: |
(i) Catering & Hospitality; |
(ii) Travel & Tourism; |
(iii) Internet Ticketing; |
(iv) Packaged Drinking Water (Rail Neer). |
The segment wise operational performance of the Company during 2022-23 is detailed
below: |
(i) Catering & Hospitality:
The Catering and Hospitality segment of IRCTC is segregated as produced below:
Mobile Catering
Mobile Catering segment caters to passengers travelling while in a train through
onboard catering services arrangements. Mobile Catering services are being provided
through pantry cars/ mini pantries (with on-board storage, reheating and cooling facility)
in the trains or through Train Side Vending (TSV) in trains which do not have pantry cars/
mini pantries. The food for service on the trains is picked up from originating/ en-route
stations and is served to the passengers.
As on March 31, 2023, IRCTC provided Onboard Catering Services in 474 Trains.
Vande Bharat Trains:
Vande Bharat trains is the pride of Indian Railways, Presently, IRCTC is managing
onboard catering services in 25 esteemed Vande Bharat Train over Indian Railways.
The menu of catering services for Vande Bharat train is designed on the basis of
regional cuisine and popular demand of the passengers, including millet items.
IRCTC plans to undertake the following to bring about radiant and perceptible in Vande
Bharat catering services:
Introduction of Licensee specific uniform in Vande Bharat Trains.
Introduction of 4 compartments Casserole for service of Lunch/Dinner
in Vande Bharat Trains. Installation of CCTV camera in kitchen units, supplying meals to
Vande Bharat Trains.
QR code on meals casserole, enabling passengers have information about food such as
item name, date of preparation, name of kitchen, FSSAI no. of base kitchen, grammage, etc.
and a link to see live CCTV footage of that kitchen.
Trial of bio-degradable casseroles/containers made of cornstarch/baggase/wheat
starch etc.
Train-Side Vending
There are a large number of trains which do not have pantry cars or mini pantries. In
such Mail/ Express trains, Onboard Catering Services is arranged by IRCTC through Train
Side Vending. In this arrangement, food and beverages for servicers are arranged from
originating and en-route stations.
As on March 31, 2023 IRCTC provided Onboard Catering Services through Train Side
Vending arrangements, (sectional / end to end ) in 713 trains.
Quality Control
To improve the standard quality meals and service for passengers, IRCTC has put the
following systems in place.
Regular & Surprise Inspections:
Surprise inspections are carried out in trains and static units of IRCTC by officers of
IRCTC's Zones and designated Railways' officers. Necessary corrective actions are taken on
the deficiencies noticed during these inspections. Around 9600 surprise inspections and
11840 onboard monitoring checks were carried out during the FY 2022-23.
Food Sampling:
To ascertain that food is safe for consumption and does not contain any harmful
contaminants, food samples of Raw Material, Cooked Food, Ready to Eat (RTE) and PAD items
are tested to ensure compliance with FSSAI standards by sending samples regularly for
testing in NABL-accredited labs. A total of 3337 samples of Raw Material, Cooked Food, RTE
and PAD items were collected and tested in NABL labs during the financial year 2022-23.
Third Party Food Safety and Hygiene Audits:
Third Party Food Safety & Hygiene audits are undertaken by IRCTC to get feedback on
hygiene, quality of food, infrastructure facility, implementation of FSSAI regulations
etc. During the FY 2022-23, Third Party Food Safety and Hygiene Audits were conducted in
351 Mobile Units and 185 Static Units.
Customer Satisfaction Survey:
Third party Customer Satisfaction surveys are also undertaken by IRCTC to get the
feedback and opinion of travelling passengers through reputed professional agencies. For
FY2022-23, Customer satisfaction survey was conducted in 30 Static units and 90 Mobile
units by M/s Foresight Research & Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
On-Board deployment of Catering Supervisors:
IRCTC has deployed supervisors/ Catering assistants for end-to-end monitoring of
catering services on all premium trains and sectional monitoring of all Mail/Express
trains. The on-board monitoring staff also addresses the grievances of passengers on a
real time basis.
On-Line Empanelment:
To ensure transparency in system, IRCTC has introduced online empanelment process for
Propriety Article Depot (PAD) and Ready to Eat (RTE) products. Any applicant sitting in
the comfort of his or her office or home can apply for empanelment of its products to
IRCTC through an online process placed at www.irctc.com.html and
www.tenderwizard.com/IRCTC. The applicant is informed about the outcome of the application
in a time-bound process.
Introduction of MSME/Start-ups:
In line with the Govt. of India's initiative for promotion of MSME and start-ups, IRCTC
has provided various exemptions for the promotion of MSMEs and Start- up firms.
During FY2022-23, IRCTC empanelled 08 brands promoted by MSME firms for supply of food
items over Indian Railways network.
Complaint Monitoring:
A passenger can give feedback or register complaint against catering services on
Rail Madad' module that allows passengers to lodge complaints through mobile app/web
platform. There are other various methods to register complaints such as, CPGRAM, National
Consumer helpline, Complaint Books, etc.
There is a monitoring team designated by IRCTC which forwards the complaints feedback
data to the concerned department/s and files interim reply to passengers on social media.
Complaints /feedback pertaining to IRCTC are recorded on E CSIM (Catering Service
Information Management) for consolidation purpose.
Complaints Redressal:
IRCTC recorded 19891 catering complaints on its E-CSIM platform and all complaints were
disposed off during the period.
QR Codes:
To upgrade technical facilities for travelling passengers, the concept of QR Codes was
started to provide information about the date of preparation, name of the kitchen, FSSAI,
weight, live CCTV streaming link etc .The provision of QR code on meal packets continued
with restart of operations by kitchen units/Base kitchens upon resumption of cooked food
in trains. During the FY 2022-23, IRCTC enabled QR code facility in 18 upgraded kitchens.
The remaining kitchens are also being covered progressively.
CCTV Monitoring:
During the FY 2022-23, IRCTC enabled live monitoring in 36 kitchens through CCTV
cameras on IRCTC portal. To ensure the hygiene levels of the cooked food and safety, IRCTC
had installed CCTV cameras in IRCTC kitchen units for 24X7 monitoring of kitchen
units/Base kitchens through monitoring room at Corporate Office and Central Control.
Point of Sale (POS) Handheld Billing Machines:
To eradicate overcharging, IRCTC has made issuance of invoices through POS machines
mandatory for all vendors. These machines enable issuing of bills for every transaction,
including those in a moving train. This also ensures proper accounting system and control.
At present, all units, mobile and static, have provision for billing through the POS.
Efforts have been made for cashless transactions in all Trains, Train-Side Vending etc.
under the Digital India initiative of the Government of India. As on 31.03.2023, 2270 POS
machines were made available in 867 rakes of Pantry cars & TSV trains. Further, 650
POS machines have been made available in 526 static catering units viz, Refreshment Rooms,
Jan Ahaars, Cell Kitchens, Food Plazas, Fast Food units, Retiring Rooms, Executive Lounges
and RYN/BNR Hotels under IRCTC.
Future Strategy:
Setting up of WarRoom for complaints:
War Room for complaints will be set up by IRCTC to facilitate fast redressal of
passenger complaints and grievances.
The war room will be equipped with latest communications facilities and adequate
manpower, it will function round-the-clock to improve the services of IRCTC.
Static Catering:
Static catering units are such units which are located at station premises and offers
catering services to the travelling passengers across the country. IRCTC manages the
following static catering units:
Jan Ahaars (units serving economy combo meals comprising regional and local
items);
Refreshment Rooms at A1 & A category stations (units where a-la-carte items,
ready-to-eat meals, and thali meals are served);
Base Kitchens;
Food Plazas;
Fast Food Units;
As on March 31, 2023 IRCTC managed 182 refreshment rooms, 57 Jan Ahaars, 11 Base
Kitchens, and 315 Food Plazas & Fast Food Units. Refreshment Rooms and Jan Ahaars are
located at Railway platform and sell low budget meal items to the travelling passengers.
The tariff of the items sold through Refreshment Rooms and Jan Ahaars are regulated and
approved by Ministry of Railways/IRCTC. A list of the items to be sold on these units
along with their prices is provided by the Ministry of Railways/ IRCTC. These units
usually sell items to passengers on the platform and sometimes supply food to moving
trains.
Jan Ahaars:
Jan Ahaar serves snacks and a-la-carte items, standard breakfast, standard meals, Janta
Khana, as authorized by the Railways. In addition, Jan Ahaar also serve approved brands of
packed items such as aerated drinks, Biscuits, Chips, Namkeens, Chocolates and Ready to
Eat meals (RTE) and Railneer PDW etc. on MRP basis.
Refreshment Rooms:
IRCTC manages Refreshment Rooms at A1 & A category stations at all stations. These
units are generally part of station building. The meal items served at these units
includes snacks, a-la-carte items, standard breakfast/ meals, Janta Khana etc. The tariff
of the cooked food items is regulated. In addition, approved brands of packed items such
as aerated drinks, Biscuits, Chips, Namkeens, Chocolates and Ready to Eat meals (RTE) and
Railneer PDW etc. are also served.
Management of Base Kitchens:
Base Kitchen is a large cooking and packing facility set up in the vicinity of Railway
premises from where food is prepared and distributed in trains. There is no sale of food
items directly to the passengers from Base Kitchens. The food from Base kitchen is
supplied in all types of trains. IRCTC managed total 11 Base kitchens as on 31.03.2023.
Up-gradation of Kitchens:
As per the provisions contained in Catering Policy-2017 and to execute the unbundling
of catering services, IRCTC has upgraded 48 Kitchens from 2017-2020. In order to cover
more trains for supply of meals from Kitchen units/Base kitchens, IRCTC has identified 50
additional kitchens for meal supply in trains. During the year 2022-23, out of these 50
identified kitchens, IRCTC has upgraded 15 kitchens by duly installing the modern and
mechanized kitchen equipments for meal production. The upgraded kitchens shall have the
facility of QR code on meal packets, live monitoring through CCTV cameras, and deployment
of Food Safety Supervisors (FSS) for collection of Food samples for lab testing.
Food Plazas(FPs)/Fast Food Units(FFUs) :
Food Plaza is a multi-cuisine plaza, which offers a variety of choice for eating to the
travelling passengers. Food Plazas normally offer multi-cuisine food and have kitchen and
dine-in facility.
Fast Food Units are food and beverage retail outlets wherein the fast food items are
sold through self-service counters. In Fast Food units, packaged food is served to
customers in take-away packets. The rates for items in Food Plaza and Fast Food Units is
market-driven. As on 31.03.2023, IRCTC managed 315 Food Plazas and Fast Food Units over
Indian Railway network.
E-Catering
To provide quality and a wider range of cuisine while traveling, IRCTC has introduced
its new e-Catering Website & Mobile app (Food on Track) for food delivery in trains at
selected stations. Available for download from Google Play and iTunes, passengers can now
easily install the app on their android or iOS smart phones and get palatable yet cheap
food delivery in trains from a variety of food partners. The prices of food booked under
e-Catering are market driven, where the restaurant fixes the menu.
With this new online food delivery app, passengers can order food on train by simply
entering their travel details such as PNR number, Train name, seat/berth number and expect
a delicious and quick food delivery on train. This effective system of online food
delivery on train not only guarantees tasty food on your seat but also a revamped railway
food menu making your journey a bit more fun. With multiple food aggregators at stations,
travellers can now enjoy an extensive set of meals ranging from North Indian to South
Indian, Pizzas to mouth watering Biryanis, butter chicken and Chinese delicacies etc.
IRCTC e-Catering has integrated with B2C partners. Some are already made LIVE such as
Ixigo, Confirmtkt, Make My Trip, Yatra, Railofy etc. to improve the process of reach out
to customers.
Some of the major brands associated with e-Catering services are Domino's Pizza,
Subway, Haldiram's, Faasos, A2B, Sarvana Bhawan, Nirula's, etc.
Booking of e-Catering orders through WhatsApp:
IRCTC has recently launched a WhatsApp for marketing of e-Catering. In next phase,
IRCTC plans to launch a chatbot/AI on whatsapp for booking of e-Catering orders. The
service allows passengers to book food and beverages through WhatsApp. The service is
expected to increase revenue for IRCTC and improve customer convenience. The Company is
confident that WhatsApp booking will be a popular service with passengers.
Executive Lounges:
IRCTC has been mandated for management of Executive Lounge at stations. Executive
lounge at stations provide services like wash and change, wifi internet, live TV, channel
music, newspaper/book stand, buffet services concierge services for pre-departure and post
arrival assistance to the passengers etc. on payment basis. As on 31st March, 2023, IRCTC
managed Executive Lounges at 8 stations viz. New Delhi (Paharganj Side & Ajmeri Gate
side), Agra Cantt, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Madurai, Sealdah and Varanasi.
|
Retiring Rooms: |
|
IRCTC manages Retiring Rooms at major railway |
|
stations to improve the accommodation facilities for |
|
the travelling passengers and to provide affordable |
|
and comfortable stay facility. Retiring Room offers |
|
facilities such as Air Conditioned Rooms and |
|
Dormitories, Quality Linen, Locker facility for luggage, |
|
LED Television, Bathrooms with all basic facilities |
such as WC, Geysers, Shower etc. with pantry and housekeeping services. As on March 31,
2023 IRCTC managed 26 Retiring Rooms. IRCTC has taken over 100 sites from Ministry of
Railways, which are in the process of tendering.
Rail Yatri Niwas/BNR Hotels:
IRCTC also develops, operates and maintains Rail Yatri Niwas/BNR Hotels. The sites have
been given to IRCTC on licence with permission to sublicence the rights to third parties
through Public-Private Partnership. As on March 31, 2023, IRCTC operated One Rail Yatri
Niwas at Howrah and two BNR Hotels at Puri and Ranchi.
Budget Hotels:
IRCTC plans to built a network of a well-planned chain of hotels that
target the economy / budget travellers. In this regard, Hotels at following locations are
under construction: Budget Hotel at Lucknow: Work for setting up of 125 Keys Budget
Hotel at Lucknow is in advanced stage. The Hotel is being set up through PPP Model with
investment of Rs. 20 cr. The hotel will have facilities to cater to demand of tourists and
MICE. Expected date of completion of Budget Hotel at Lucknow is December, 2023.
Budget Hotel at Khajuraho: Work for setting up of 60 Key Budget Hotels at
Khajuraho is in progress. Development of Hotel is through PPP Model with investment of Rs.
7cr. Expected date of completion of Budget Hotel at Khajuraho is December, 2024.
Budget Hotel at Kevadia: Due to increase in footfall at Statute of Unity and to
tap the tourism potential of upcoming tourist destination of Kevadia, IRCTC is in process
to create 500 Key Budget Hotels facility in the town. In the first phase, work for setting
up of 125 Key Budget Hotels at Kevadia is in progress through PPP Model with investment of
Rs. 20cr. Expected date of completion of Budget Hotel at Kevadia is December, 2024.
Other Hotels in pipeline: To have presence on pan India basis, IRCTC has
approached other states governments i.e, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand,
Sikkim, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and Rs.&K for allotment of land as
follows:
a. Development of Budget Hotel at Goa:
Govt. of Goa has already allotted land for development of Budget Hotel at Goa. The work
for setting budget hotel is in progress.
b. Development of Budget Hotel at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh: Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
has already earmarked land for development of Budget Hotel at Holy City of Ayodhya.
c. Development of Budget Hotel at Kohima, Nagaland: Govt. of Nagaland has
approached IRCTC for setting of budget hotel in Kohima, Nagaland. Discussions are in
advanced stage for allotment of land to IRCTC for the above said project.
Future Strategy :
1. Identification of Fresh sites for Food Plazas & Fast Food unit at A1 and
A Category Stations:
To provide catering services at market driven rates and standards, Railway board has
been requested to handover fresh sites at 146 stations for setting up of Food plaza &
Fast Food Units.
2. Up gradation of Brown Field Kitchen Units in the Stations:
IRCTC has identified 45 Kitchen Units within the Railway station premises which are
under process of upgradation to supply quality meals to mobile units.
3. Setting up Green Field Base Kitchens in the Stations:
IRCTC has requested Zonal Railway for space at 05 identified locations to set up Green
field base kitchens to supply quality meals to mobile units.
4. Rail Yatri Niwas & BNR Hotels:
After the completion of 15 years tenure, fresh tender have been invited for BNR/Puri
and RYN/Howrah for the remaining tenure of 12 years & 11 years respectively. The units
are scheduled to be commissioned in 2nd Qtr of FY 2023-24.
5. Retiring Room & Dormitories:
In order to increase the approach towards accommodation services at stations and
revenue of IRCTC, Railway Board has been requested to issue instructions to Zonal Railway
to expedite handing over of the 100 more sites of Retiring Rooms especially at A1 & A
category Stations to IRCTC.
Non Railway Catering(NRC)- IRCTC manages various non Railway Catering projects
(NRC) such as canteens, cafeterias, kiosks etc. outdoor events at various Govt. as well as
Non Govt. offices including institutional catering. Currently IRCTC is managing 08 NRC
units on Pan India basis.
TRAVEL AND TOURISM
IRCTC has utilised the COVID- 19 scenario by tying up with various service providers
like Hotels, transportation companies, etc. to provide better services along with
competitive pricing to the customer. With the removal of restrictions related to COVID- 19
and vaccination drive, the passengers were having less fear of travelling outside their
homes. With the revision of Standard operating procedure (SOP) for taking measure on
spreading COVID -19 pandemic and issuance of new Normalcy guidelines followed by IRCTC,
the business of Tourism department has increased tremendously.
Being a Railway PSU, IRCTC specialises in rail based products and is the market leader
in this segment. IRCTC is one of the leading travel and tourism companies in the market,
catering to the needs of diverse tourist segments be it land, customised or LTC packages.
Besides rail based tourism products, IRCTC has also diversified into various other tourism
businesses for increasing the market share in the immensely competitive tourism market.
Further new avenues have also been explored by planning new packages based on heritage,
culture, adventure, medical wellness and special interest tours. The hard work done by the
tourism team during lockdown period has resulted in launch of attractive, competitive and
economical tour packages. IRCTC has its exclusive tourism portal, www.irctctourism.com for
showcasing and booking of various tourism products in a single space, shown below as:
|
IRCTC's Tourism Products And Services |
|
Domestic Tour Packages |
IRCTC Corporate Trains |
Outbound Tour Packages |
Air Ticket and Corporate Travel |
Other Tourism Activities |
Rail Tour Packages Holiday Packages Packages with Charter Train/Coaches Customised
Tours LTC Tours Domestic Air Packages |
Inbound Tourist Targeted Tours Maharajas' Express Golden Chariot
Buddhist Special Tourist Train (Deluxe Tourist Train) |
Mass Tourism Bharat Gaurav Trains State Special Tourist Trains Election
Specials |
Air Ticketing Corporate Travel |
Event Management Booking of Charter Trains & Coaches Hill and Heritage Charters
Saloon Tours and Charters Online reservation of Accommodation facilities Cruise Packages |
Educational Tours |
|
|
|
VISA & FOREX |
IRCTC has marketed the products across India though various marketing activities
especially Digital Marketing & Social Media, due to large number of followers on
Social Media.
IRCTC launched and operated many Land Tour Packages, Domestic Air Packages, State
Special Trains, customized travel packages, Bharat Gaurav Trains, Deluxe tourist train and
IRCTC Corporate Trains, etc.
The performance of tourism products are provided below:
Domestic Tourism
i. Rail Tour packages IRCTC offers comprehensive package with all
inclusive services like confirmed onward and return rail journey, road transfers,
accommodation, meals and sight-seeing at reasonable rates. The business from Rail Tour
packages has increased from 5,341 tourists in FY 2021- 22 to 21,741 tourists in FY 2022-
23. ii. Holiday packages IRCTC also operates Holiday Packages (Land
Packages) which includes road transfers, accommodation, meals and sight-seeing. For this
package, the services are offered to passengers when they reach at destination (whether
from Railway Station/ Airport / Bus Stand). For FY 2021- 22, a total 56,854 passengers
availed IRCTC land packages which increased to 62,396 passengers in FY 2022- 23.
iii. Packages with charter coach and train These are all inclusive
packages like Rail Tour Packages, where the train
travelisarrangedthroughcharteredcoachesortrainsbyIRCTC. In FY 2021- 22, IRCTC operated 14
RTP with charter trains/ coaches catering to 2,558 passengers in comparison 14 RTP charter
coach tours with 1,120 passengers in FY 2022- 23.
iv. Customized tour package- These packages are tailor-made based on the
requirement of the tourists such as, budget, level of luxury, places of Interest, length
of stay, etc. During the financial year 2022- 23, a total of 7,418 tourists availe d these
packages as against 1,155 in previous year, showed a growth of 542%.
v. Leave Travel Concession (LTCs): Government of India authorised IRCTC as one
among three PSUs for operating LTC tours. IRCTC offers general and customised LTC packages
to Government employees. All IRCTC tours qualify for LTC travel. During the year, IRCTC
arranged exclusive LTC package service to 27 passengers.
vi. Domestic Air packages IRCTC operated various Domestic Air packages from
all the Zones to various destinations like Shirdi, Goa, Delhi, Tirupati, Gangtok,
Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Andaman and Nicobar, Ladakh, Srinagar, Mumbai, Puri, Konark,
Ayodhya and more. IRCTC provide accidental insurance coverage of Rs. 10 lakhs to each
passenger make booking of IRCTC Domestic Air packages. During FY 2022-23, IRCTC operated
649 Domestic Air Packages and provided services to 13,944 passengers which is more than
previous year (i.e. FY 2021- 22) where IRCTC had operated only 249 domestic air packages
with 5,085 passengers. The business has shown growth of 174% in terms of number of
passengers travelled.
vii. Educational Tours: IRCTC operates educational tours for students under its
"travel to learn" scheme and has tie-ups with various State Governments as well
as private schools for operating educational tours for their students. During the year
2022- 23, IRCTC operated various education tours as: a. Tamil Kashi Sangamam and provided
services to 2,592 participants which has been travelling from IIT Madras to BHU, Varanasi.
b. North East Yuva Sangam tours under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (EBSB), 28 Higher
Educational Institutes being identified by Ministry of Education have travelled with
paired 14 institutions. Total 1,250 approx. participants have travelled in 29 tours and
IRCTC has provided end to end services.
c. Other Educational programs.
i. Maharajas' Express: Maharajas' Express has created a brand image for IRCTC in
the field of luxury tourism in the international arena. Maharajas' Express operates on
four different itineraries out of which three itineraries are of 6 Nights/ 7 Days and one
of
3 Nights/ 4 Days which cover places like Udaipur, Jodhpur,
Bikaner, Jaipur, Ranthambore, Agra, Khajuraho and Varanasi. The itineraries have been
uploaded with departure dates on the website of the train https://www.the-maharajas.com/.
The train is operated during the tourist season from September to April.
During the FY 2022-23, IRCTC operated operated 23 trips for 975 tourists (paid
passengers).
ii. Golden Chariot: Golden Chariot, the only luxury train being operated in South
India by Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation was taken over by IRCTC for
marketing, operations and maintenance for a period of 10 years through an Agreement signed
between the two organisations on 19th November, 2019 with physical possession
of the train by IRCTC in January, 2020.
The itineraries and departure dates of the train for the season 2023-24 and 2024-25
have already been announced and published on the official website www.goldenchariot. org.
Three itineraries viz. Pride of Karnataka (5 Nights/6
Days), Jewels of South (5 Nights/6 Days) and Glimpses of Karnataka (3 Nights/4 Days)
have been planned various destinations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa.
During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC operated one trip of Golden Chariot with 22
guests on-board. iii. Buddhist Circuit Special Train: IRCTC has been operating
Buddhist Circuit Special Tourist Train since 2007. This is a fully air-conditioned train
offering a 7
Nights and 8 Days package covering all major Buddhist Pilgrim locations in India and
Lumbini in Nepal. The new rake of Buddhist Circuit Train has International level features
like Two Dining Cars, Vacuum Bio-toilets, Air Suspension springs, Security lockers,
modified 2AC coaches with side seating facility, On-board housekeeping and security, CCTV
camera security, accidental insurance facility, Foot massager and Mini library, etc. The
itineraries have been uploaded with departure dates on the website of the train www.
irctcbuddhisttrain.com. During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC operated 01 trip of Buddhist Circuit
with 44 tourists.
iv. Deluxe Tourist Train: IRCTC has been working to increase the utilization of
Buddhist Special Train rake to operate different tourist circuits targeting domestic
tourists, launched deluxe tourist trains. In FY 2022- 23, IRCTC operated 04 trips with 789
passengers onboard. IRCTC has requested Railways for additional 02 3AC coaches to this
train to match with the minimum composition of a Train under Bharat Gaurav train policy.
v. Outbound Tour Packages During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC has operated 95 outbound
packages and provided services to 3,195 tourists.
Air Ticketing and Corporate Travel
i. Online Air ticketing: IRCTC's air-ticketing micro-site www.air.irctc.co.in
provides online booking facility of Domestic as well as International Air-tickets at very
competitive prices with the lowest convenience fee as compared to other portals of Online
Travel Agents (OTA) in the market.
Mobile app of IRCTC facilitates the booking air tickets on the go for Android and IOS
users. The average number of air ticket booked per day through IRCTC in FY 2022-23 was
5322, in comparison to 2440 in FY 2021-22. IRCTC provides complimentary travel insurance
coverage of H50 lakhs to passengers of all the booking made through IRCTC web page and
App.
ii. Corporate Travel Business: IRCTC offers complete Travel Solutions for
corporates which includes air ticketing, booking of domestic including LTC tickets, as
well as International tickets, hotel bookings, visa facilitation, insurance etc. IRCTC has
decentralised the business at zonal level to make more tie-ups with PSUs/ Ministries/
Government Departments, etc. and better co-ordination with the organisations. IRCTC has
tie-up with more than 175 PSUs/ Ministries/ Government Departments and institutions
for providing corporate travel services.
Mass Tourism
i. Bharat Gaurav Trains: IRCTC has initialised the operations of Bharat Gaurav
trains across India with the procured LHB rakes provided by Indian Railways for promotion
of Rail based tourism in Domestic market at reasonable price. With the change of policy
issued by Railway Board, all tourist trains come under "Bharat Gaurav Policy".
IRCTC with 2 rakes for operation of Bharat Gaurav trains already, had requested for
additional 8 rakes from across India. Total 08 rakes are operational across India and
operating Bharat Gaurav train tours. During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC operated 10 trips and
provided service to 5,330 passengers (including 03 tours operated for Karnataka Govt.).
ii. State Tirth Special tours:
a. State Special tours by Trains: IRCTC operates the state special tourist train
tours in collaboration with various state governments. The government selects the
beneficiaries of the tour package who are mostly senior citizens. These train tours cover
various destinations of tourist and pilgrim importance across India. During FY 2022- 23,
IRCTC operated 96 State Special trains for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Goa, Odisha
& Jharkhand and provided services to 94,508 passengers. Discussions for providing
such services to many state governments are under progress.
b. State Special tours by Air: For the very first time, IRCTC operated State
Special tours for elderly residents of state through Air. These air tours were organised
for Rajasthan State Government ex- Jaipur to Kathmandu on regular basis and a total of 538
passengers were carried.
iii. IRCTC Corporate Trains: Under the directives of the Ministry of Railways IRCTC
started the operation of the corporate premium passenger trains in 2019 with
Lucknow-Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express commencing operations on 5th October followed by
commencement of Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas in January, 2020.
IRCTC is focusing on generating more Non- fare revenue (NFR) from Tejas and the
empanelment policy for advertisement agencies has been issued for selling of advertisement
spaces of interior and exterior space/ areas in Tejas rakes. Various companies have been
empanelled for different NFR activities like LED display, Advertisements in Meal Tray,
Head rest etc, Vinyl wrapping of coaches, etc.
During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC operated these Corporate Trains on regular basis (i.e. 6 days
a week) and was successful in placing it as an unique train among general public.
iv. Election Special Trains: IRCTC has been nominated as single window for booking
and movement of Election Special Trains along with provision of onboard catering services
to the forces on movement. During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC successfully operated 244 Election
Special Trains connected with assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,
Odisha, Goa and Delhi.
Other Tourism Activities
i. Event Management: IRCTC has been organizing various Conferences, Events and
Incentive packages for Indian Railways, PSUs, Education Department and other prominent
institutions. During FY 2022-23, IRCTC organised 5 Events by providing MICE (meetings,
incentives, conferences and exhibitions) services to 180 members.
ii. Logistic Business: IRCTC ventured into Cargo
/ Logistics Sector for offering transportation and supply chain management solutions to
Government Organizations. Targeting both domestic and international freight business.
IRCTC is awarded work by BSF, MoD Headquarters and Ordinance Factory Khamaria.
iii. Booking of Charter Trains and Coaches:
Ministry of Railways has nominated IRCTC as the single window agency for online booking
of all trains and coaches on charter basis. During FY 2022-23, 539 (140 trains and
399 coaches) charters were booked through IRCTC. The online booking of FTR Trains/ coaches
is done through IRCTC's exclusive web page, www.ftr.irctc.co.in.
iv. Hill and Heritage Charters: IRCTC actively promotes the five Hill Railways of
India viz Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), Kalka-Shimla
Railway, Kangra Valley Railway and Matheran Railway. IRCTC operates hill charters over
Kalka-Shimla, Nilgiri Mountain Railway and Darjeeling Himalayan Railways UNESCO's
"World Heritage Sites". During FY 2022- 23, IRCTC diversified the services and
provided services to 73 passengers by operating 2 Rail Motor cars and 2 charter trains.
v. Luxurious Railway Saloon Car: Ministry of Railways decided to open the bookings
of its fleet of luxurious saloon coaches to open market and has entrusted IRCTC with the
task of marketing and booking of these special rail products. A Saloon Car generally has a
living room, two air-conditioned bedrooms one twin bedroom and the other similar to
AC First Class coupe with attached baths, dining area and a kitchen. Optional services
like attendant, catering, pick and drop is arranged as per demand of tourists. During
FY 2022- 23, IRCTC successfully operated 93 saloon charters across India in comparison
to 48 saloon charters operated in the previous year. vi. Online booking of Retiring
Rooms at Stations and Hotel Booking: IRCTC has been providing the convenience of
booking of retiring rooms online to Railway passengers having confirmed PNR across 435
Railway stations through IRCTC tourism portal. Passengers can also book Retiring Rooms on
the go on Android and IOS mobile through IRCTC App. Hourly booking is also available at 48
stations. At present, about 70% of total retiring room bookings of Indian Railways are
being done online.
IRCTC has upgraded retiring rooms at 26 stations viz. Palakkad, Madurai,
Tiruchchirappalli Jn, Tirupati, Bilaspur, Lucknow Jn, Gorakhpur, Tatanagar, Sealdah,
Rajender Nagar T (Patna), Jaipur, Vadodara, Madgao, Thivim, Ahemdabad, Kachiguda, Udupi,
Lonavala, Mumbai Central, Agra Cantt., Gwalior, Pune, Nasik, Bhusaval Jn, Solapur Jn,
Jalgaon Jn under PPP model and booking is made online. The upgraded retiring rooms have
hotel like facilities such as fully Air-conditioned rooms with Wifi, TV, Geyser, linen,
sofas etc.
During FY 2022-23, total 6.23 lakh bookings for Retiring rooms were made with a total
revenue of Rs. 36.88 Crores.
vii. Online Bus booking: IRCTC provides bus ticket bookings on www.bus.irctc.co.in
IRCTC has tied up with various bus transport organisations such as M/s Abhi Bus and M/s
Red Bus etc and booking are available for booking of bus at 23 states and 4 UTs as of now.
During FY 2022-23, a total of 1,63,674 passengers availed the IRCTC online bus booking
service. Total 1,05,817 TID's were booked during the FY 2022-23. On an average, around 300
bus tickets were booked on daily basis through IRCTC Bus Portal during FY 2022-23 as
against an average of 94 tickets booked per day during FY 2021-22. There has been a growth
of approx. 670% in passengers travelled and 200% revenue generated in FY2022-23 as
compared with that of FY 2021-22, making the business a profitable one.
viii. IRCTC Mobile Apps: The application for IRCTC App is already available for
Android and IOS users. An integrated IRCTC app featuring Rail and Air ticketing and IRCTC
Tourism in the name of "IRCTC TOURISM" is also available to the customers to
book their choice of travel and tourism product on the App. A Mobile App has been
developed on Android as well as iOS for Maharajas'
Express to simplify the recording of guest feedback system and promotion of off-board
excursions.
ix. Tourism Portal:
In the era of modern technology where internet, websites and apps are ruling the world,
IRCTC has realised the potential of growing as an Online Travel Agency. The portal offers
on-line booking of Tourist Trains, Air tickets, Tour packages be it through rail, air or
land, Hotel, Saloon Cars, AC Tourist Trains, Event Management, etc. To be at par with the
user friendliness and facilities which other OTAs offer, IRCTC has revamped its tourism
website. During FY 2022-23, total Transaction IDs (TIDs) generated was 8,15,630 for
18,08,548 passengers, in comparison to 2,54,256 Transaction IDs (TIDs) and 5,79,249
passengers in FY 2021-22.
x. Online Feedback module: IRCTC takes online feedback of tourists/ passengers
travelling or availing service of IRCTC like tourist trains, packages, etc. through the
Tabs provided to the tour leader. Apart from that, customers can also provide feedback
through the link provided to them after the trip is completed. These feedbacks are used
for analysing the satisfaction level of the guests and for taking necessary action or
steps to make the product better.
xi. Part Payment facility: Online and Offline Customers can now utilize the Part
payment facility to book their Tourism packages and plan their journeys in advance without
blocking the full amount.
Part payment is allowed for online booking for package cost above Rs. 50,000/- per
transaction for all Packages.
IRCTC registered users and Guest users can avail the part payment facility for online
booking at www. irctctourism.com.
The minimum ARP (Advanced Reservation Period) for part payment facility would be
for booking done before 35 days from departure date.
Part Payment is applicable on total booking amount, is greater than Rs. 50000/.
The payment is collected in 2 instalments.
For Domestic/International Air Packages: - 1st payment for 30%
amount, Final/ Balance payment for 70%.
For All Other Packages: - 1st payment for 25% amount, Final/Balance
payment for 75%.
If the due/final payment is not done within 30 days prior to departure date,
then the request for the final payment would not be accepted & booking would be
treated as cancelled & relevant cancellation charges would be applicable.
xii. Online Hotel Booking: IRCTC had integrated accommodation partners (Hotel, Home
stay, Bed and Breakfast, PGs, Dormitories, paying Guest Houses, Yatri Nivas, holiday
Homes, start up etc.) for online booking through https://www.hotel.irctctourism.com or
irctctourism' mobile apps Android and IOS. Some of the major partners are:
Park Hotels |
Sterling Holidays |
Oyo Rooms |
Svelte Hotels |
Pride Hotels |
Uberoi Anand |
Oga Hotels |
Dorota House |
Comopolitian Hotels |
MP Tourism |
KTDC Hotels |
Le Roi Hotels |
Ginger Hotels |
Southern Grand Hotels |
IRCTC Guest House,Katra |
Hotel Ramada |
Sunil Enterprise |
Hotel Welkin Residency |
Hotel Excellence |
Umrao Hotels |
Chandra Inn |
Hotel Clarks Grand |
Tamil Nadu Guest House |
Amantra Comfort Hotel |
Hotel Rialto |
Hotel Mayur |
The Pride- Mussoorie |
Hotel Dwara |
O2 Oxygen |
Fab Hotels |
Hotel Soniotel etc |
|
Following Channel Managers are also integrated with IRCTC webpage for providing hotel
inventory.
# |
Name of Channel Manager |
1 |
Staah |
2 |
Djubo |
3 |
Bookingjini |
4 |
Maximojo |
5 |
Asiatech |
6 |
Axis Rooms |
7 |
Resavenue |
8 |
Eglobe |
9 |
Ezeeabsolute |
10 |
Rate Tiger |
Customers now can book more than 875 hotels across over 265 cities with starting tariff
as low as Rs. 600/-. Most of the Hotels are located near Railway
Stations, Airports and city centres. Most of the Hotels offer no cancellation charges
if cancelled before 24hrs of checkin. In 2022-23 there were 10662 transactions with
gross revenue of Rs. 2.67 Crores.
xiii. Online Ticketing for National Rail Museum (NRM): Online Ticketing System
of National Rail Museum (NRM), Chanakyapuri, New Delhi is being managed by IRCTC since 14th
April, 2022 by facilitating visitors, who wish to book their online tickets in advance
through website (www.nrmindia.org) for visiting Museum, and for different Rides.
Institutional Bookings by Schools & other Institutions are also enabled in the system.
Ticket booking can be made via multiple payment modes i.e. Credit/Debit cards, Net
banking, Wallets, UPI etc. Further, Counter bookings are also enabled with POS machines
for digital payments.
QR codes enabled tickets can be scanned through the Mobile App provided to the Ticket
checking staff at the different counters for facilitating the easy entry of visitors.
Total 63,574 tickets were booked with a transaction value of Rs. 2,18,99,590 in FY
2022-23
xiv. Trains at a Glance (TAG): The Trains at a Glance time table of
Indian Railways with a high readership gives detailed information about routes, timings of
important passenger trains, premium trains; other details which are handy for rail travel
such as reservation procedures, rules and regulation of travelling, passenger amenities on
trains and in stations including catering, menu types and rates, and also about rail-based
tourism.
Besides, making the prestigious time table available at Railway stations premises and
reservation offices, IRCTC for the first has made the Trains at a Glance available at the
door steps of the customers by offering online booking facility through its ticketing and
tourism websites. After a pause of 2 years, Ministry of Railways has released the 43rd
edition of Trains at a Glance for the customers which has been dedicated to the service of
the nation in October, 2022. The cost of a single book is Rs. 160/- inclusive of delivery
charges. Cancellation is not allowed, once booked. Total 7702 TAGs were issued at the door
steps of customer in 2022-23. Apart from this TAG is also supplied to various Railways for
selling through their counters, book stalls etc.
IRCTC has also created e-Book of Trains at a Glance in 2022 with a host of features for
better reading experience from October, 2022 onwards. The TAG e-Book is also compatible
with devices like Mobile Phones, Tabs, etc. which costs Rs. 30/- per copy. Cancellation is
not allowed, once booked. It is available for reading based on login across platforms.
Total 703 TAG e-books were issued in 2022-23.
xv. Shri Kedarnath Heliyatra Ticketing System: IRCTC has signed an MoU with
UCADA (Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority) for providing Helicopter ticket
booking system for passengers to visit Shri Kedarnath Dham. IRCTC has developed the
Helicopter ticketing website https://www.heliyatra.irctc.co.in/ and has successfully
launched online Helicopter ticket booking from 08.04.2023. The tenure of the project is
for a period of 5 years.
The online ticketing system for Helicopter service to visit the Holy Shrine of Shri
Kedarnath Dham by the pilgrims, is a prestigious project for IRCTC, which is unique with
complexities and multiple variations. IRCTC will be handling administrative &
Technical operations, Payment Gateway accounting/ reconciliation, etc.
Going ahead......
Being a tourism arm of Indian Railways, in initial phases, IRCTC has developed and
promoted more of Rail based tourism products. But to manage the competition in the market,
IRCTC has also launched and operated various non-rail based tourism products. With
this extremely diversified tourism product lines, there is tremendous scope of growth in
the field of tourism and it is seen that as per the projection given by WTTC (World Travel
& Tourism Council), the tourism business will grow by 5.8% approx. (compound annual
growth rate) in next 10 years (2022- 2032).
In line with this, the company plans to further enhance and consolidate tourism
business in the coming years by expanding and streamlining existing business lines as well
as introducing new product lines.
With issuance of new policy of "Bharat Gaurav Trains" and revised charging
principle issued under the same policy, all tourist trains which include Bharat Darshan/
Pilgrim Special Trains, Maharajas' Express, Golden Chariot and Buddhist Circuit tourist
trains has come under Bharat Gaurav Trains.
IRCTC plans to operate tourist trains with total 10 exclusive rakes of Bharat Gaurav
Trains, of which 08 rakes are already operational across India. The composition of the
rakes has been kept with minimum composition of 14 coaches.
However specific thrust of the company areas identified for the financial year 2023- 24
are:-
1. Bharat Gaurav Trains: IRCTC has initialised the operation of Bharat Gaurav
trains across India with the procured LHB rakes provided by Indian Railways for promotion
of Rail based tourism in Domestic market at reasonable price. With the revision of haulage
charges, it is expected that IRCTC will operate more than 100 tours in FY 2023- 24.
2. Passenger Trains: IRCTC will operate both the Tejas trains on 6 days in a
week basis as operated in FY 2022- 23 as well as try to increase the occupancy of berth
utilisation of these trains to increase the revenue generation.
3. Online Bus booking: IRCTC has tied up with M/s Abhi Bus and M/s Red Bus, for
facilitating online bus ticket booking for the passengers and is in the process of
continuously developing the portal making it more seamless for the passengers to book
tickets. Options will be explored to widen the reach of this business by adding more Bus
consolidators.
4. Rail Tour Packages: To give a boost to Rail based tourism, IRCTC will
increase the number of Rail Tour Packages and will request Zonal Railways for blocking
more number of berths as per VAT Policy in the trains identified by IRCTC for operation of
these packages. Even try to maximise the number of occupancy of popular packages.
5. Customised Holiday packages: One the basis of demand of customers, IRCTC will
plan and develop more customized packages for small groups of family and friends, which
will give variety to customers.
6. Destination Management Companies (DMCs): IRCTC will empanel reputed agencies
as destination management companies to provide competitively priced packages for IRCTC
international tours.
7. Educational Tours: Under "Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat" scheme,
Ministry of Education (MoE) has planned to operate Yuva Sangam tours, where IRCTC has
provided end to end services for the tours of FY 2022-23. MoE have planned to operate
"Saurashtra Sangamam" in FY 2023- 24 for which end to end arrangements will be
done by IRCTC.
8. State Special tours: State Governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have
planned to operate State Special trains as well as State Special tours with Air through
IRCTC and IRCTC will operate both these tours in the upcoming Financial Year. Discussions
are in progress with other state governments also for operating such tours from their
state.
9. Cruise Packages: Once the International travel restrictions on out-bound
tourists are reduced or removed, IRCTC will focus on launching packages in co-ordination
with major Cruise liners operators.
10. River Cruise Packages: IRCTC in collaboration with Antara Cruise plants to
launch packages in the country offering Luxury River Cruise Tours. These tours will be
offered to the guests of Maharajas Express also.
11. Direct tie-up with Hotels and Transport companies:
IRCTC has initialised direct tie-up with Hotels and hotel chains as well as
transporters to provide competitive package prices to the passengers. IRCTC shall continue
to do so in the times to come to pass on maximum benefit to customers.
12. Ship tour package from Chennai to Srilanka: IRCTC is in discussion with
Srilankan High Commission for exploring the possibility of operating tours to Srilanka by
Ship.
INTERNET TICKETING
IRCTC's journey has proved to be a milestone of reserved rail e-ticketing. Since its
inception, it has transformed the e-ticketing service, providing an unparalleled level of
convenience and accessibility to millions of people even to the remote areas. Its impact
on the lives of the masses is immeasurable, and its contribution to technological
advancements is commendable. During the FY 2022-2023 about 80.99% online ticket were
booked which is likely to increase through AI based booking, seamless payment methods on
single platform.
On March 21, 2022, IRCTC has reached a milestone of 15.88 lakh e-tickets bookings from
27 tickets booked on its first day in 2002, a testament to its exponential growth. After
almost two decades of unparalleled progress, IRCTC has emerged as one of the largest
e-commerce website. The growth of this platform has enabled the common man, to take the
benefits of new technology, making online ticketing more accessible, convenient and
affordable. Through IRCTC internet ticketing website and mobile app, people can book
tickets from the comfort of their homes, offices etc. eliminating the need to physically
visit the PRS counter, saving time, and reducing the hassle.
IRCTC pioneered internet-based rail ticket booking through its Website and Mobile App
which accounted for 80.99% of the total reserved tickets booked online on Indian Railways
in 2022-23. The site offers round-the-clock ticket booking services, except for a
35-minute break from 23:45 hrs to 00:20 hrs. During financial year 2022-23, the IRCTC
Website and Mobile App recorded an average daily ticket sale of 11.82 lakh tickets,
representing an increase from the previous financial year's average of 11.44 lakh tickets.
These numbers highlight the system's impressive growth and ascendancy in the Indian
e-commerce space.
Service Charge/Convenience Fee
Service Charge which was levied by IRCTC H20 + Tax per ticket for Non-AC Classes and
H40+ Tax per ticket for AC
Classes, on the Reserved Rail Tickets booked through its platform, was withdrawn by the
Ministry of Railways from 23.11.2016 to 31.08.2019 as an initiative for promotion of
digital transactions.
IRCTC started collection of Convenience Fee on e-ticket bookings from 01-Sep-2019
onwards at the rate of H15/- + GST per ticket for Non-AC Classes and H30/- + GST per
ticket for AC Classes (including First Class/FC). For BHIM/ UPI payments, the Convenience
Fee is being charged at a reduced rate of H10/- + GST per ticket for Non- AC Classes and
H20/- + GST per ticket for AC Classes, as per the policy to promote UPI.
Internet ticketing through Ask Disha Chatbot
The advent of e-ticket booking through AskDisha Chatbot heralds a paradigm shift in
IRCTC e-ticketing. The seamless integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine
learning has endowed AskDisha with the ability to engage in convenient conversational
interactions with customers, rendering the booking process hassle-free. The One Time
Password (OTP) sent to the registered mobile number of the user, authentication mechanism
adds an extra layer of security to the ticket booking process.
To assist users with their queries and concerns, IRCTC initially introduced an
AI-powered chatbot called "Ask Disha" (Digital Interaction to Seek Help
Anytime). The chatbot uses natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to
understand and respond to user queries in real-time.
Ask Disha is available 24x7 and can be accessed through the IRCTC Website, Mobile App.
Users can Ask Disha a wide range of questions related to ticket booking, cancellation,
refund, train schedules, station codes, and much more.
Taking this advance and futuristic AI Chatbot to the next level IRCTC has launched
e-ticket booking facility on Ask Disha Chatbot in full-fledged manner on 31st
March 2022. It has made e-ticket booking accessible in a convenient, conversational manner
using voice and chat, which allows users to book train tickets, check their booking
status, and even cancel their bookings.
The performance of this cutting-edge technology has been outstanding since full-fledged
launch on 31st March 2022. The total number of tickets booked through Ask Disha
Chatbot in the financial year 2022-2023 stands at a staggering of 5.78 Lakhs reserved
e-ticket booking, with a revenue of Rs. 84.92 Crores. This achievement represents a
substantial leap in revenue growth and postulates for sustained expansion in the future.
Segment Overview
With a transaction volume of more than 35.94 million per month and 6.12 million logins
per day, the Company operates one of the most highly populated and transacted websites in
the Asia-Pacific region.
a. NGeT System: The Next Generation E-Ticketing (NGeT) System was implemented as a
replacement for the previous e-ticketing system it has increased the per-minute ticket
booking capacity from 2000 to 7200 tickets, significantly improving the system's
efficiency. In addition, a state-of-the-art data center has been setup in CRIS premises at
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, to support the upgraded system, increase the capacity and inflow
of daily bookings which is regularly updated to keep up with technological advancements.
The Company has a strong customer database and leverages the same to crosssell and add
value to its products to enhance customer engagement and derive top-line growth.
The NGeT System has capacity to book over 26,000 tickets per minute, making it one of
the most efficient online ticketing systems globally. On November 12, 2022, a remarkable
feat was made when a record-breaking 28,434 tickets were booked in a minute, showcasing
the prowess of NGeT system.
On March 21, 2022, the NGeT system hit a record of 15.88 lakh tickets booked in a
single day, further establishing its status as a state-of-the-art technological platform.
b. IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App e-ticketing: During FY 2022- 23, total average
mobile ticket booking was 5.60 Lakhs per day. There are a total of 9.95 Crore downloads of
the Mobile App. Daily Mobile Logins are 42.24 Lakhs. During FY 2022-23 more than 2042 lakh
tickets were booked as against 1915 Lakh tickets booked in FY 2021-22. IRCTC Rail Connect
Mobile is one of the top most rated Mobile App of India in Google play store. Now Rail
Connect Mobile App is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
c. IRCTC i-Pay Payment Aggregator: IRCTC's own Digital Payment Gateway-
IRCTC i-Pay (A PCI-DSS Compliant Payment Solution) is one-stop payment solution
facilitates payments through all payment modes (like Internet Banking, Debit Card, Credit
Card, Wallets, UPI Account & Autopay) and for safe and secure transaction between the
merchant website, multiple issuing institutions, acquiring banks and the payment gateway
providers. During the Financial Year 2022- 23, i-Pay has generated a revenue of Rs. 95.99
Crores with good profit margins.
d. New User Interface (UI): IRCTC has been constantly contributing to enhance the
customer experience and convenience while booking reserved rail e-tickets through its
Website and Rail Connect Mobile App with the aim of retaining its customer base. Keeping
in mind the same, IRCTC had launched the New User Interface of e-ticketing Website and
Mobile App with modified functionalities and some additional features. Revamping of IRCTC
e-ticketing user interface was a Digital India initiative, which promises to transform the
service delivery experience offered to travellers. Further, the New Interface for
e-ticketing enhances user personalisation and facilitation of the IRCTC Website
www.irctc.co.in and the IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile Apps (Android & iOS Platforms) with
user-friendly features and more comfortable navigation, which is secured with advanced
data systems and processes. The look-and-feel of the interface has been changed with a
simplified and appealing design.
e. IRCTC Payment System: Payment options and successful transaction rates are
critical for the success of the e-commerce industry. IRCTC over the years has developed
and nurtured a robust system of payment gateways with various payment options such as Net
Banking, Credit Card, Debit Card, Wallets, Cash Cards, BHIM/UPI, Scan and Pay,
Pay-On-Delivery / Pay- Later, EMI, etc. for the IRCTC website application and other
dedicated web applications and App. Even, foreign users can book tickets using their
International Credit Card (Issued outside India) on the available Payment Gateways
provided by Atom Technologies and ITZ Cash Card along with other Multiple Payment Options.
The transaction on IRCTC's website is completely safe and has been certified by VISA,
VeriSign, RuPay, American Express, Safe Key, mVisa, UPI and Master Secure etc. Bank
Account or Card Account details of users are not saved in the servers of IRCTC at the time
of booking tickets, thereby ensuring prevention of any misuse.
f. Tatkal Scheme for Reserved Tickets: The Tatkal charges have been fixed as a
percentage of fares at the rate of 10% of the basic fare for second class and 30% of the
basic fare for all other classes subject to minimum and maximum limits. Tatkal tickets are
issued for the actual distance of travel, instead of end-to-end, subject to the distance
restrictions applicable to the train. The same Tatkal berth/seat may be booked in multiple
legs till preparation of the charts. At the time of preparation of charts, the unutilised
ones are released to the General RAC/Waiting list passengers. Tatkal facility is also
available in the Executive Class of Shatabdi Express trains by earmarking 10% of the
accommodation available i.e. 5 seats per coach. Tatkal booking opens at 10 AM for AC
Classes and 11 AM for Non-AC Classes. Tatkal tickets can be booked one day in advance from
the train originating station excluding the date of journey of enroute stations. The
scheme is available on www.irctc.co.in and IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App where customers
can book tickets on the Tatkal scheme seamlessly.
g. VIKALP Scheme: Travellers who have been put on the waiting list, irrespective of
a booking quota or concessions, can choose maximum five trains under this scheme. It does
not confirm a berth, since it depends on the availability of seats in the given train.
There is no refund or extra fare charged for these changed trains, including the Tatkal
prices. Either all passengers of a PNR opting for this scheme will be transferred to
alternate trains in the same class or none will. Once confirmed in an alternate train, the
cancellation charges apply as per the usual rules. A person can be transferred to any
train available within the window as per selection made by the user. The train list once
selected under VIKALP can be changed or updated only once.
h. Loyalty Program: In addition to SBI and Bank of Baroda co-branded credit card,
IRCTC took another step towards expanding IRCTC's Co-Branded Credit Card cum Loyalty
Program on 01st March 2023, IRCTC in collaboration with HDFC Bank launched a
new Co-Branded Credit card on the indigenous RuPay platform, under the ambit of the
existing Loyalty Program (i.e. SBI & BOB) for rail users, known as the IRCTC HDFC Bank
Credit Card. The passenger may book their tickets and purchase other goods from market.
The passenger earns loyalty points from it and may book rail tickets using these loyalty
points. The payment gateway charges are zero on rail ticket booking using this card.
During FY 2022-23 revenue of Rs. 37.52 Crores were received from this segment as against
Rs. 37.03 Crores earned in FY 2021-22. There are 12.06 Lakh card holders of this scheme
which also includes 4.01 Lakh card holders of Credit Card on RuPay platform.
i. BHIM/UPI Payment Mode: For those users, who make online payment for e-tickets
through BHIM/UPI payment mode, Convenience Fee is charged at a reduced rate
@ Rs. 10/- + GST per ticket for Non- AC Classes and Rs.
20/- + GST per ticket for AC Classes (including First Class), to promote digital
payments, thereby fulfilling the Digital India mission of the Government of India. During
FY 2022-23, total BHIM/UPI transactions were 1454.71 which is 33.73% of total online
ticketing as against 1323.78 transactions in FY 2021-22.
j. Travel Insurance: IRCTC introduced the travel insurance for Indian citizens
(above five years) who use the IRCTC website application to book their tickets. The travel
insurance provides accidental coverage to passengers during their travel with the Indian
Railways. In case of an accident due to collision between trains, derailing of the train
carrying passengers or any other kind of train accident, the passengers or the nominee can
claim compensation. The coverage of the policy will be on a PNR basis and will include
death, permanent total disability, permanent partial disability as well as hospitalisation
charges. This travel insurance, up to H10 lakhs, is provided to passengers who opt for it
by paying a very small premium @ Rs. 0.49 per passenger which was reduced to Rs.. 0.35 per
passenger. During the fiscal year total passengers opted for Travel Insurance was 33.75
Crores. Premium collected for this service was 11.77 Crores.
k. Concessional Bookings: The concessional booking facility is also available for
Journalists and Divyang (physically challenged) passengers for booking of online tickets
on the IRCTC Website and Mobile Apps using ID cards provided by the Indian Railways.
l. Online Booking for Railway Pass Holders: Online booking of Reserved Rail ticket
using the Railway Pass has been implemented for Railway employees who are in service.
Convenience Fee and Travel Insurance is not applicable for these bookings. During FY
2022-23, 27.40 lakh tickets were booked online using Railway Pass/PTOs as compared to
16.27 lakh tickets FY 2021-22.
m. E-ticketing Portal for Para Military Forces: IRCTC e-ticketing facility proved
as an extremely convenient tool for the Paramilitary Forces for handling their reserved
train e-ticket requirements, as well as eliminated the need for cumbersome manual
processes of railway warrant management, the reconciliation and accounting between Indian
Railways and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
IRCTC has developed a dedicated website to maintain the e-ticketing system along with
the Warrant Management System for booking of e-tickets through this portal to travel in
trains in a hassle-free manner.
Giving further impetus to this progress e-ticketing service for IndoTibetan
Border Police (ITBP) has been launched on 09-02-2023. Presently, IRCTC serves Seven
Central Paramilitary Forces, namely, NSG, CRPF, NDRF, AR, CISF, BSF abd ITBP.
Internet Ticketing Statistics
. No. of E-Tickets and Passengers Booked: A total of 4313.00 lakh tickets
have been booked in 2022-23 as compared to 4174.49 lakh in 2021-22. In total, 7706.40 lakh
passengers got booked on E-Tickets in 2022-23 as compared to 7343.26 lakh passengers in
2021-22. The ratio of Passenger to Ticket during the year was 1.79:1. b. E-ticketing
Revenue Collection: During the year 2022-23, a total amount of Rs. 54313.46 crores was
collected as Ticket Fare from the users as E-ticketing revenue, which is 42.26% more than
the last year's collection of Rs. 38178.32 crores.
New Initiatives taken during 2022-23
Berth booking Facility for Infant child in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App was
made available.#
Introduced e-Wallet registration facility in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.#*
Default travel insurance option avoiding extra pop-up on passenger reservation
page in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App was introduced.#*
Enhanced and simplified user account recovery process in IRCTC Rail Connect
Mobile App.#*
With just a few taps on your smartphone, you can now select your desired quota
and easily modify your journey dates on the TRAIN LIST page.#*
New UI Design for the Dashboard Page launched for customers in IRCTC Rail
Connect Mobile App.#*
IRCTC has developed a dedicated page on Rail Connect Mobile App from where user
can check their journey details, schedule of train, train running live tracking etc.#*
Implementation of new "VISTADOME" class in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile
App.#*
Proliferation of iPay Booking in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.*
Refund of Travel insurance premium amount against cancellation of tickets in
IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App started.*
Changes in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App was done to display berth availability
status's last updated time from cache at train list page.*
IRCTC Server date and time is now displayed on Rail Connect Android App's TRAIN
SEARCH page so as to avoid any confusion due to difference of time on user's Mobile device
and IRCTC server.#*
New sleek design of Electronic Reservation Sup (ERS) on booking of e-tickets
from IRCTC Website implemented.@
Loyalty account changes in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App done for inclusion of
Bank of Baroda card.#
For IRCTC e-wallet user facilitation from Oct-2022 onwards, IRCTC e-wallet will
never expire and will be available lifetime free of cost.#
Implementation of 'Rating' for capturing user experience in Indian Railways IT
applications done in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.#
Implementation of content cube advertisement widget on Website and Mobile App.#@
Ask Disha Chatbot service moved to AWS based URL Update in IRCTC Rail Connect
Mobile App.#*
Integration of inMobi Ad Network on Google AD Manager for revenue generation.
Users can now download ERS on mobile app and request ERS as a pdf form in the
mail after booking.#@
Now User can re-verify Aadhaar details.#
Non-commercial ISL (Stations) to be displayed with proper information in Route
Details in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.#
Cancellation facility online is available for Current Booking PNRs.@
Pass/PTO Tickets booked on PRS counters can now be cancelled online at the IRCTC
website.@
Integration of Cache as EMI Payment Provider on Mobile App (iOS Platform) RDS
model Mobile App.*
Hindi Language Mobile App in sync with website in IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.#
Integration of Easebuzz as MPP on IRCTC Rail e-ticketing Mobile Apps on RDS
MODEL.#
Proliferation of booking through Ask Disha Chatbot in Mobile App.#
Integration of Razorpay UPI in UPI (exclusive) payment option of Rail Connect
Mobile App.*
Integration of Video Ads Widget on IRCTC Website.@
Changes done in Rail Connect App to Order Food in Train from e-catering.#
Changes in the position of iPay in Mobile App for proliferation of booking.#
Biometric based login for Mobile App is initiated to address the complaints of
repeated Captcha and difficulty in using the App on 26-Dec-22.
IRCTC has developed e-ticketing application for Paramilitary Forces for booking
reserved rail e-tickets to their personnel. E-ticketing system was commissioned for
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for booking Reserved Rail e-tickets for ITBP personnel
w.e.f. 09-Feb-2023.
Advertisement/Marketing/Promotional Activities:
Push Notification Services on IRCTC Website and Mobile App: Through this
facility 875 crores Mobile App push notifications and 348 crores Website push
notifications were send to users across India for IRCTC in-house products ranging from
Bharat Gaurav Tourist trains, E-Catering, Chatbot Booking services to Ramayana Yatra, Bus
bookings and many such more items.
Integration of Ad Network for additional Advertisement revenue inMobi Ad
Network was added to Google Ad Manager on 23-Nov-2022 for facilitating ad-on revenue to
IRCTC.
In order to maximize revenue streams through digital inventory, new placeholder
for Cuboid widget ads, video Ads widget was added to IRCTC Website in year 2022.
Data & Cyber Security
The Company relies on state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that the confidentiality,
integrity and availability of all its online services and its data are adequately secured
from the prevailing cyber security threats. The Company safeguards its data with advanced
security systems and successfully defends the system against malicious virus or other
cyber threats.
IRCTC E-Ticketing System is a well-protected system, equipped with industry-standard
state-of-the-art security technologies for protection from cyber threats and data theft.
This includes Network Firewalls, Network Intrusion Prevention System and Web Application
Firewalls etc. The website runs on an Extended Validation (EV) SSL/TLS Certificate that
provides end-to-end data encryption between the website and its users. Sensitive data like
user passwords are stored in encrypted form in the database.
All online payment integration, including net banking and Credit/Debit Card are
implemented on the URL-redirection model wherein all users are redirected to concerned
banks/ payment gateway websites for the on-line payment process, fully eliminating any
chance of Credit/Debit card data leakage at the IRCTC end.
The company had also refreshed the ICT Infrastructure for its Travel & Tourism and
Catering services, and has deployed a number of cyber security solutions viz. Web
Application Firewalls, Privileged Identity Management, Secure Email Gateway and Malware
Sandboxing solutions with the objective of enhancing its cyber security posture.
Showing its commitment toward cyber security, the PCI QSA Services have been hired by
the company in Feb 2022 for achieving PCI DSS Security Certification for its Travel &
Tourism business. PCI DSS Certification compliance is expected in year F.Y. 2023-24.
In order to provide secure and reliable remote access to its enterprise applications
for its workforce, a Zero-Trust based
Secure Access Solution with multi-factor authentication capability is being put in
place. The solution will allow IRCTC workforce to safely log in to corporate applications
and desktops any-time any-where and to access private applications/systems they need to be
efficient and productive. Implementation of the solution will be completed by May, 2023.
Information Security Policies, including Privacy Policy, of IRCTC are uploaded on IRCTC
Corporate Portal (under Employee Login). The web link is not available publicly.
Going ahead.....
IRCTC with its optimistic outlook has planned to bring into its system some new
projects which not only promise to promote IRCTC brand name but also proves the company's
expertise and adaptability to latest innovative technologies in vogue in the market place.
At the same time, it is also anticipated to create new businesses and thereby generate
additional revenues for the company. Not only widening its business arena, IRCTC, ITC will
be using innovative technologies in vogue, for system improvement.
Following are some future projects to be undertaken by Internet Ticketing:
a. Better Payment Services through best in Industry Solutions - IRCTC e-ticketing
system has to address the payment and refund issues which is the reason for the largest
number of complaints. Integration of single payment orchestration solution is trending in
e-Commerce industry for enabling seamless transactions/refunds. IRCTC is now on the path
of providing a comprehensive suite of payment solutions on IRCTC ticketing system on a
Proof-of-Concept basis. After assessing the success of the POC, long term Integration of
such solution will be done in the NGeT System. This solution also envisages simplified
integration of preferred payment service providers and also ease of reconciliation and
accounting of transactions.
b. IRCTC Heliyatra Online Ticketing System - to Shri Kedarnath Dham
IRCTC has signed an MoU on 22/03/2023 with UCADA for the development of online ticket
booking system (www. heliyatra.irctc.co.in) to book Helicopter services from 03 locations
(Sirsi, Phata and Guptkashi) to Shri Kedarnath Dham and back. IRCTC Heliyatra online
ticket booking system will facilitate the pilgrims with seamless ticket booking for
Helicopter journey to visit the Holy Shrine of Shri Kedarnath Dham.
The tenure of MoU between IRCTC and UCADA is for a period of 5 years. This project not
only envisages to generate additional revenues to IRCTC, but also depicts the IT skills of
the team due to which more such opportunities are anticipated in future.
c. Monetisation of Chatbot Services by extending to Third Party Organisations.
Having gained experience in running Chatbot enquiry service on its e-ticketing platform,
IRCTC will now extend AI based Chatbot services (like AI Chatbots, VoiceBots, VideoBots,
Virtual Assistants, Intelligent RPA, and Bots etc) to government and private organizations
across various verticals & functions.
AI powered multi-format, multi-lingual and multi-channel Virtual Assistant will help
organisations save operational/support cost and generating additional revenue, besides
enhancing customer adoption, engagement and satisfaction.
d. Train Information Enquiry Services to Third Party Operators: Policy for
integration of service providers for providing Train Information Services has been framed
by IRCTC. Train Information Enquiry Service will be provided to Third Party Operators for
dissemination of Authentic Train information (Availability and fare, Trains between
Stations, Cluster Station List, Train Schedule, Boarding Stations List, PNR Enquiry, etc.)
on their respective platforms to the customers. This service will be integrated with those
firms who do not intend to provide online rail ticket booking service, but are interested
in providing train related information to their customers. This will not only enhance the
customer convenience and satisfaction but also enable to create a new revenue stream for
IRCTC, without levying any cost to the customers.
e. Bill Payments & e-Market Place: IRCTC will be providing e-Market place
and Bill Payments/ Recharge services and other third party services like Online Insurance
on its Website and Mobile App in partnership with third party service providers. This will
not only enable the company to diversify its business by way of providing variety of
services to its customers and generate additional revenues, but also pave way to sustain
in the e-commerce ecosystem and customer retention.
f. Diversification of IRCTC as Fintech Company: iPay, being own business
initiative of IRCTC, was started as a pilot project in 2018-19 eyeing its usage in IRCTC
websites and huge market opportunity in government businesses where IRCTC iPay becomes a
good fit and better equipped to provide customized payment service.
In the times of digital payments and Government of India's push to make India a less
cash economy, there is an immense gap in the demand and supply for such kind of product.
Further being a product of IRCTC, a public sector, it shall have an added advantage over
private players in lieu of trust and reliability.
In this regard, IRCTC has plans to operate as a payment aggregator ("PA").
For this, IRCTC will be seeking authorization (to the Reserve Bank of India (" RBI
")) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (" PSS Act ")from
RBI
e. System improvement -
Automated Speech Recognition: Automated Speech Recognition an
Emerging Innovative Technology will be introduced for 139 helpline services. The IVRS will
enable natural language based automation speech feature to have a natural conversation
experience to the customer in 13 languages. The system will be upgraded for continuous
improvement to enable automated reply and to facilitate ease of convenience for users of
different parts of the country.
PACKAGED DRINKING WATER (RAIL NEER)
Railneer is a signature product of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC). Our packaged drinking water is processed, purified, bottled, and packaged at the
state of the art plants and widely available at all major railway stations across the
Indian Railway Network.
Rail Neer drinking water has been made mandatory at major railway stations and to step
up the production to meet growing demand, IRCTC is setting up various Rail Neer plants
across the country.
During FY 2022-23 a new Rail Neer plant at Bhusawal (Maharashtra) with production
capacity of 72000 bottles per day has been set up. As on 31st March, 2023,
IRCTC has 16 operational plants located at Nangloi, Danapur, Palur, Ambernath, Amethi,
Parassala, Bilaspur, Sanand, Hapur, Mandideep, Nagpur, Jagiroad, Maneri, Sankrail, Una and
Bhusawal out of which plants at Amethi, Parassala, Sanand, Hapur, Mandideep, Nagpur,
Jagiroad, Maneri, Sankrail, Una, Bilaspur and Bhusawal are operated under the PPP model.
Performance of Rail Neer plants during FY 2022-23 as compared with FY 2021-22 is tabled
hereunder:
Financial Year |
Production |
Turnover |
Plant |
|
(bottles in |
Rs. ( |
In crore) |
Utlisation |
|
Crore) |
|
|
(%) |
2022-23 |
35.77 |
|
315 |
73.32 |
2021-22 |
19.86 |
|
172.26 |
42.60 |
Quality: Rail Neer Plant at Nangloi, Danapur, Palur and Bilaspur are accredited
with ISO: 9001- 2015 quality management system certification and Rail Neer Plant,
Ambernath is accredited with ISO:22000-2015 certification.
The result of the tests carried out by the accredited laboratories on Rail Neer
Packaged Drinking Water indicates that the quality of Rail Neer conforms to European
Economic Community (EEC) norms for pesticide residue.
Technology/Capacity upgradation
To combat design duplication and consequent sale of spurious water, a hologram has been
embedded on the Rail Neer bottle as a safety feature on pilot project basis.
IRCTC has developed a Rail Neer App for billing and monitoring Rail Neer distribution
operations in plants. This has improved performance of Rail Neer operations and we are
capable to utilise it as a decision-making tool.
Rail Neer Carrying and Forwarding Agencies (CFAs) have been empowered to issue invoice
through Rail Neer App to licensees, enabling live record and reconciliation of sale and
supply of stock to trains and catering units. This has simplified the process of bill
settlement in real time, rendering accurate results every time. It has also resulted in
savings in stationary and offers time for reconciliation. Further, the data of billing is
automatically uploaded on GST portal.
Going ahead...
IRCTC's current production capacity is around 15.52 lakh litres/day, spread over
sixteen working plants. With the commissioning of four more plants at Bhubneshwar
(Orrisa), Kota (Rajasthan), Simhadri near Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) & Mallavalli
near Vijayawada during 2023-24, capacity will be enhanced to approx 18.40 lakh litres/day.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
The Company continues to invest in development of its employees, with a fresh impetus
on policy and structural changes. Many progressive schemes have been implemented to
improve alignment between individuals and the organisation. Revamping Performance
Management System, enhancing employee engagement, strengthening internal communication,
use of e-platform based interventions for learning and development, and leadership
development are some specific initiatives underway.
As on 31st March, 2023, the Company had a total manpower strength of 2229 personnel
with the following details:
Category |
No. of Employees |
Regular Employees |
1356 |
Deputationists |
44 |
On Contract |
162 |
Out-sourced |
656# |
Consultants |
11 |
#Engaged through Manpower Service Provider Agency for providing support
services.
The percentage of women employees, SC/ST/OBC employees, persons with disabilities and
ex-servicemen out of regular employees of the Company is mentioned below:
Category |
No. of Employees |
% of total no. of regular employees (1356) |
Women employees |
114 |
8.40 |
SC Personnel |
263 |
19.40 |
ST Personnel |
71 |
5.23 |
Other Backward |
340 |
25.07 |
Classes |
|
|
Persons with |
13 |
0.95 |
Disabilities |
|
|
Employee Welfare:
Every workplace thrives on the satisfaction of the employees. It has to be ensured that
all employees are happy, healthy, safe, and productive. Employee welfare refers to all
aspects of a workplace environment that support the well-being of its staff. This includes
physical safety, mental health, and stress-management programs. It also encompasses
employee benefits such as health insurance, vacation time, retirement plans, and other
support services.
Going ahead in this direction, the Company took following initiatives:
Employees' Group Insurance Scheme: Extended the coverage of accidental
death as well as natural death amounting to 70 months basic pay plus Dearness Allowance
for all employees of IRCTC, including deputationists.
Compassionate Ground Appointment Policy for IRCTC Regular Employees:
Introduced appointment on Compassionate ground for the dependents of IRCTC's regular
employees who lost their lives while in service (except in case of suicide), irrespective
of the period of service left, till the age of superannuation.
Employees' Contributory Welfare Scheme: IRCTC Employees' Contributory
Welfare Scheme has been introduced with an aim to provide immediate financial aid to the
family in the event of death of an IRCTC's employee. An employee can become a member of
scheme on voluntary basis, by contributing a nominal amount of H100/- per month.
IRCTC Medical Attendance Rules: For medical treatment requiring
hospitalization and indoor attention, full reimbursement is being made of the expenses
incurred in Empanelled Hospitals, Government Hospitals, Government aided Hospitals, etc.
The scheme covers the employees/family suffering from critical diseases viz. Cancer, Renal
Failure, Heart Disease, etc.
Post Retirement Medical Scheme (PRMS): It is a social security measure
for the employees and their family members for providing medical care after their
superannuation. This scheme is extended to post retirement medical benefit to the eligible
employees in IDA pay scale and their spouses who have superannuated/retired/died on or
after 01.01.2007 after putting in 15 years of service in CPSE(s). This scheme also covers
those employees who have already superannuated, retired or medically retired on or after
01.01.2007).
Alternative Method of Medical Treatment: To promote the alternative
method of medical help, IRCTC is providing free consultation services of Homeopathic
Physicians to the employees of the Corporate Office and North Zone. Homeopathic treatment
has helped a large number of staff and their families in recovering from illnesses i.e.
common cough, cold and prevention of seasonal diseases.
Funeral expenses of a deceased employee: An amount of H25,000/- is
granted as ex-gratia to the dependent family members of the deceased employee as funeral
expenses.
Engagement of Apprentices: As per the Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship guidelines, IRCTC is duly fulfilling its obligation of engaging
apprentices for training in the band of 2.5% to 10% of the sanctioned strength. For this
period of training, a stipend is paid to each apprentice as per directives of the Ministry
of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. During the year 2022-23, 68 apprentices (i.e.
5.5% of the total employee strength) were engaged. For 2023-24, the target for engagement
of Apprentices is 224.
Talk to Management: Recently, a scheme Talk to Management' has been
launched, where an employee/ contractual staff can interact with HR head of IRCTC (i.e.
Group General Manager/HRD) informally regarding his/her long pending grievances or any
innovative idea for improving the performance of organization or any other issue, without
the intervention of his controlling officer/supervisor. The basic idea behind this scheme
is to get suggestions from the employees through brainstorming' for system
improvement of the organization, besides resolving the grievance of the employee.
Training to Employees: Training Cell has conducted various training
programs related to Food Safety & Hygiene, POSH, MDPs, Orientation programs, Virtual
campus, during the FY-2022-23 and covered training across all levels. A small glimpse of
the trainings conducted during the last financial year 2021-22 and financial year 2022-23
is as under:
Financial Year |
Number of Training Programs |
Number of staff trained |
Mandays |
2021-22 |
26 |
1250 |
6538 |
2022-23 |
68 |
1285 |
8529 |
Brief highlights of training imparted:
Exposure to training of staff was drastically increased as compared to training
organized in previous financial year.
Organizing vast range of training programs having employee centric approach like
Work Ethics, Yoga & Meditations, Social & Emotional Health, POSH, GeM, Food Safely
for Food Handlers, Orientation Program for Public Relation, Personal & Professional
Resilience Post Crisis, Cyber Security, etc.
Organizing Virtual Classroom season 2 (sessions conducted by AM to GM level
Officers) through IRCTC training portal for capacity building of the company.
Pre exam training for IRCTC Supervisory staff through online mode.
Bharat Gaurav Train workshop for IRCTC Tourism department.
Officers were imparted raining through reputed institutes on various management
topics whose details are enlisted below
Competency - Based Interviewing Skills at Bangalore by M/s Institute of HRD.
02 day online workshop on "Mindfulness for Organizational Excellence"
by SCOPE
02 day workshop on " Labour Laws, PF, ESI, Bonus, Gratuity Statutory
Compliances" M/s Pricneton Academy at Hotel The Lalit.
03 day workshop on " Preventive Vigilance at NFSU, Gandhinagar (Gujarat)
02 day online workshop on "Right to Information Act" by NAHRD.
Workshop for Liaison Officers (SC/ST) (WLO SC/ ST-21) through ISTM.
Online training Breach Prevention & Response Colloquium by AIMA.
Leadership Development Programme for
Professionaliz in below board level officials at IICA, Manesar.
Corporate Branding in Digital Era by IIM Visakhapatnam DPE.
"Developing Yourself for Managerial Excellence" by Faculty of
Corporate Training and Development ( FCTD).
01 day Seminar on "Reimagining Indian Railways: Harnessing the Power of
Data Analytics for Integrated Transportation" by CRIS.
02 days "Asian Packaging Congress - Packaging 3s" by Indian Institute
of Packaging (IIP).
Open House Conclave on "Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act
2013" by CSDT.
Details of training programs conducted during FY-2022-23
S. No. |
Name of the Programme |
Attended by |
Duration (Days) |
Attended by |
Mandays |
Total Training Hrs. |
1 |
JanMitra training by M/s PCTIL |
Supervisors & Above |
2 |
850 |
1700 |
3400 |
2 |
Fostac training for remaining batches |
Workmen & above |
1 |
150 |
150 |
450 |
3 |
Competency - Based Interviewing Skills at Bangalore by M/s Institute of HRD. |
JGM & above |
2 |
2 |
4 |
28 |
4 |
Administrative Vigilance : Role of IO/PO by M/s ISTM |
Supervisors & Above |
5 |
6 |
30 |
150 |
5 |
Competency - Based Interviewing Skills at Mumbai by M/s Institute of HRD. |
AGM & above |
2 |
2 |
4 |
28 |
6 |
02 day online workshop on "Mindfulness for Organizational Excellence" by
SCOPE |
Mgr. & DGM |
2 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
7 |
02 day online session on "Mentoring Specialized Training for Metors" by
AIMA. |
Supervisors & Above |
2 |
8 |
16 |
128 |
8 |
02 day workshop on " Labour Laws, PF, ESI, Bonus, Gratuity Statutory
Compliances" M/s Pricneton Academy at Hotel The Lalit, |
Supervisors & Above |
12 |
1 |
12 |
96 |
9 |
01 day workshop on " Implementation of CSR" in CPSEs by SCOPE |
GGM & Above |
1 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
10 |
1 day workshop on " MSME & GeM " in CPSEs by SCOPE. |
GGM & Above |
1 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
11 |
Webinar on General Cancer Awareness by Dr. Reddy Foundation |
All Employees |
1 |
70 |
70 |
560 |
12 |
Self Empowerment with Yoga by M/s Scope. |
Mgr. & Supevisors |
1 |
4 |
4 |
16 |
13 |
Webinar on POSH |
All Employees |
1 |
550 |
550 |
1100 |
14 |
Yoga at Workplace by Ms. Archana Singh (Yoga Instructor) |
All Employees |
3 |
100 |
300 |
600 |
15 |
Yoga Technologies for Well beings by ISHA Foundation |
All Employees |
1 |
110 |
110 |
220 |
16 |
Meditation for Heathy & Happy Life by Brahma Kumaries |
Workmen & above |
1 |
30 |
30 |
90 |
17 |
Webinar on Total Retirement Solutions by Bajaj Finance |
All Employees |
1 |
60 |
60 |
120 |
18 |
02 day workshop on " Government e-Market" (GeM) by HLL Management Academy |
Ch. Suoervisor |
2 |
1 |
2 |
36 |
19 |
Webinar on Investment Solutions for Bright Future by Bajaj Finance |
All Employees |
1 |
50 |
50 |
150 |
20 |
02 day online workshop on "Train the Trainer" by Pinceton
Academy |
Supervisors |
2 |
4 |
8 |
48 |
21 |
HR Conclave 2022- HR Shifting Gears by PHD Chamber of Commerce |
Manager |
1 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
22 |
Online training program on " Industrial Control Systems - Security
Essentials " by CERT-In's |
DGM |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
23 |
03 day workshop on " Preventive Vigilance at NFSU, Gandhinagar
(Gujarat) |
Director |
3 |
1 |
3 |
72 |
24 |
Workshop on "Financial statement preparations as per best financial
reporting practices" by SCOPE |
AM & above |
1 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
25 |
02 day online workshop on "Right to Information Act" by NAHRD |
Supervisors & above |
1 |
8 |
8 |
128 |
26 |
Online training on "Lean Methodology" by AIMA |
Supervisors & above |
1 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
27 |
03 day online training for FSS & IRCTC Kitchen Incharges |
Supervisors & above |
3 |
30 |
90 |
810 |
28 |
Workshop for Liaison Officers (SC/ST) (WLO SC/ST-21) through ISTM. |
JGM & above |
2 |
4 |
8 |
64 |
29 |
Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age by IIM, Jammu |
Mgr & DGM |
5 |
2 |
10 |
80 |
30 |
Strategic Marketing Management Experience Design and Technology Management
Approach in Digital Era by IIT, Guwahati |
JGM & AGM |
5 |
2 |
10 |
80 |
31 |
2 day training program for Company Secratories (KMPs) by DPE |
AGM & above |
2 |
1 |
2 |
32 |
32 |
3 day Risk Management workshop at Rishikesh by VMC Consulting |
DGM and above |
3 |
3 |
9 |
216 |
33 |
Online training Breach Prevention & Response Colloquium by AIMA |
Supervisors & above |
1 |
3 |
3 |
12 |
34 |
DPE trainings Sept,22 |
Supervisors & above |
5 |
10 |
50 |
6000 |
35 |
Online workshop on "IT Audit" by Princeton Academy |
Supervisors & above |
1 |
7 |
7 |
21 |
36 |
2 D Fintech Boot Camp by M/s Think Startup |
Supervisors & above |
2 |
25 |
50 |
300 |
37 |
Virtual Campus Season - II (Inhouse Training) |
All IRCTC Employeees |
30 |
80 |
2400 |
19200 |
38 |
Employability Skills by All India Management Association (AIMA) |
All IRCTC trainee |
1 |
20 |
20 |
120 |
39 |
Online Gamification workshop - ACPCIT by AIMA |
AGM |
1 |
5 |
5 |
15 |
40 |
Leadership Development Programme for Professionaliz in below board level
officials at IICA, Manesar |
AGM |
3 |
2 |
6 |
48 |
41 |
MDP on Corporate Reforms and Changing Corporate Strategy at Hyderabad by
IPE |
Supervisors & above |
2 |
3 |
6 |
48 |
42 |
14th National Summits 2022 on "CSR: Regulatory Framework and
Challenges" BY CSR Research Foundation |
Supervisors & above |
1 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
43 |
Investigation of Financial Crime by NFSU |
Supervisors & above |
3 |
6 |
18 |
144 |
44 |
Role of HR in building future organizations by Institute of HRD |
Mgr. & above |
2 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
45 |
Corporate Branding in Digital Era by IIM Visakhapatnam DPE. |
JGM |
4 |
1 |
4 |
32 |
46 |
Cyber Crime & Safety Measures by Institute of Public Enterprises,
Hyderabad |
Excutive & above |
3 |
2 |
6 |
48 |
47 |
Pre-exam Training for S4 |
Chief Supervisors |
15 |
120 |
1800 |
7200 |
48 |
Risk Mitigation through Forensic Document Examination by NFSU |
Manager & above |
5 |
3 |
15 |
120 |
49 |
"Procurement of CPSEs from MSEs through GeM" by SCOPE |
Ch. Supervisor & Mgr. |
1 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
50 |
01 day workshop on "Bharat Gaurav Train" (BGT) |
GGM & Above |
1 |
5 |
1 |
8 |
51 |
"Record Management for Record" by Archivist National Archives of
India |
Mgr. & Above |
3 |
3 |
9 |
72 |
52 |
"How to Become the Best Version of Yourself- in personal &
professional life" by Life Transformation Academy |
Ch. Supervisor & Above |
1 |
4 |
4 |
32 |
53 |
03 Days Residential Training Programme on "Operation and Maintenance
& Advances in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs)" by M/s National Productivity
Council (NPC) |
Mgr. |
3 |
2 |
6 |
144 |
54 |
"Right to information and Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of
Sexual Harassment of Women at workplace" by NIGAM |
Mgr. and JGM |
2 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
55 |
"Developing Yourself for Managerial Excellence" by Faculty of
Corporate Training and Development ( FCTD) |
JGM & AGM |
2 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
56 |
Wellness Session on "Epilepsy: Care &Precaution" by Dr.
Reddy's foundation |
DEO(OS) to JGM |
1 |
35 |
35 |
140 |
57 |
"Record Management for Record" by Archivist National Archives of
India |
Mgr. & Above |
3 |
1 |
3 |
24 |
58 |
Fianancial Planning and Tax Saving by Bajaj Capital |
IRCTC employees |
1 |
50 |
50 |
200 |
59 |
01 day Seminar on "Reimagining Indian Railways: Harnessing the Power
of Data Analytics for Integrated Transportation" by CRIS |
JGM & AGM |
1 |
3 |
3 |
24 |
60 |
01 day Workshop on "Wellness, Fitness & Power Dressing" by
M/s Princeton Academy |
Ch. Supervisor & Exe. |
1 |
8 |
8 |
64 |
61 |
02 day Seminar on "GFR &Public Procurement through Gem" by
M/s Indian Railways Institute of Logistics & Materials Management (IRILMM) |
Executive and JGM |
2 |
2 |
4 |
64 |
62 |
02 days "Asian Packaging Congress - Packaging 3s" by Indian
Institute of Packaging (IIP) |
GM & JGM |
2 |
2 |
4 |
64 |
63 |
Online training cum workshop on "Bharat Gaurav Train (BGT)" |
IRCTC employees |
1 |
150 |
150 |
900 |
64 |
Infrastructure Financing by Arun Jaitley DPE |
GGM & JGM |
5 |
2 |
10 |
80 |
65 |
Open House Conclave on "Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace
Act 2013" by CSDT |
JGM & Mgr. |
1 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
66 |
01 day Live Online, Interactive workshop on "Training Need Analysis -
TNA" by Princeton Academy |
Ch. Supervisors |
1 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
67 |
Induction Training of newly promoted Asst. Supervisors (WZ,EZ,SZ,SCZ,NZ ) |
Asst. Supervisors |
5 |
105 |
525 |
4200 |
68 |
6 months online course in Digital Marketing training from IIT Delhi |
CMD |
52 |
1 |
52 |
156 |
Grand Total |
|
|
2631 |
8529 |
48430 |
Industrial Relations
The industrial relations climate in the Company has traditionally been harmonious and
cordial. A collaborative and seamless IR atmosphere has been maintained in the Company so
that IRCTCians are ready for the challenges faced by the Company due to the changing
business environment. An effective work culture has been established in the company
through empowerment, transparency, decentralisation and practice of participative
management to support the management in overcoming challenges faced by the Company.
Particulars of Employees
The provisions of Section 134(3)(e) of the Act are not applicable to a Government
Company. Consequently, details on Company's policy on Directors' appointment and other
matters as required under Section 178 (3) of the Act, are not provided.
Similarly, Section 197 of the Act is also exempt for a Government Company.
Consequently, there is no requirement of disclosure regarding the statement showing the
names and other particulars of every employee of the Company, who if employed throughout /
part of the financial year, was in receipt of remuneration in excess of the limits set out
in the rules are not provided in terms of Section 197 (12) of the Act read with Rule 5 (1)
/ (2) of the Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014.
USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) /ERP
During the year, the Company has adopted, latest upgraded version of ERP "Oracle
Release 12". Functional processes like Financial, Purchasing, Inventory Management
and all Contracts with enhanced functionalities are implemented in the Company on pan
India basis.
All official data of the organization has been maintained electronically in a secure
environment with user's access rights control.
In addition to the above and aiming to widely use of electronic means in daily routine
work, various in-house applications have been designed, developed & implemented in the
organization. IT works as a key link between the various user departments. Various
initiatives have been taken during the year for benefit of Employees as well as general
public.
Drives for internal use by employees of IRCTC:
During the year, the Company has successfully implemented Fixed Asset module of ERP.
Addition to this, various in-house developed of software applications have also been
successfully implemented across zones & regions.
a. Performance Management System for online assessment of employees (Workmen,
Supervisor & Executive level staff/official) during the year has been successfully
implemented in IRCTC. A few key features of the application are highlighted below;
Digital & Easy to access
Role based navigation, Safe & authenticated Time Saving Paperless
(Eco-friendly) & Legible (readable for longer period Easy to track Improve efficiency
Auto alerts (email)
b. Android based HRMS mobile app for all the employees is successfully implemented. Key
features are given below;
I connect (In-house IRCTC's quarterly newsletter) Employee Self Service facility to
view; Salary Slip Monthly ITR
Form 16
APAR / PMS Report
Annual Property Return Report Gratuity Nomination Report Policies Online facility of;
Leave Management Entitlement
c. Implemented in-house developed open sourced HRMS dashboard for all IRCTC employees.
A human resource management system (HRMS) is a software application used to store employee
information from Hire to retire (H2R). Modules configured in the system for an easy access
of information related to;
Service Record of Employees Public & Personal Information Previous Employment Other
Information References
Family Details
Medical Assessment & Verification Initial Joining Details Qualification,
Promotions, Punishments, Transfers Document upload
Payroll (Pay slips, Income Tax Sheet, Saving details) Expense / reimbursement (General
/ Travel)
Developed & implemented online systems for supporting official functioning of
Employees & providing more interactive platforms for outside public as well such as;
By using "Tender Tracking & Management System", status of a tender may be
ascertained online through this application.
Launched a digitally driven method named "talk to management system" for
communicating with management and sharing of ideas for improving the performance of
organization. The basic idea behind this special move is to get suggestions from the
employees through contrivance for system improvement of the organization.
Efforts taken for general public outside IRCTC
A management tool named "Litigation Management System" is launched for
getting status of legal matter at once. Application is developed for Advocates with
limited access.
For quick upload of invoice & status tracking an application named "Supplier
Bill Status" is developed for vendors.
Digitization of office
Achieved milestone of 100% use of e-office system in IRCTC. Data security is maintained
with the help of Digital Signature Certificate.
Mandatory use of GEM for procurement
During the year, GEM portal was extensively used for procurement of capital goods,
consumables as well as services across zones & regions.
VIGILANCE
The vigilance wing in IRCTC is a key department acting as direct link between CVC,
Railway Board Vigilance and the Organization. It has been entrusted with the
responsibilities of mandate to carry on various surprise checks and scrutinize
records/documents of various other departments from time to time for timely detection of
fraud, malpractices, corruption and unwarranted/unlawful business conduct in the
organization. It coordinates with the IRCTC management and Railway Beard vigilance in
dealing matters of vigilance administration, policy and disciplinary proceedings against
erring officials. IRCTC vigilance wing is headed by full time CVO assisted by Deputy CVO,
3 Vigilance Officers and 3 Chief Vigilance inspectors in the corporate office. There are
further 5 Vigilance Officers in various zones handling vigilance related matter in the
field. CVO being the extended arm of CVC is deeply engaged in furthering culture of
transparency, fair procedures, good business conduct and raising vigilance awareness in
the organization. The focus area of vigilance department is to promote work culture of
intelligence gathering, monitoring and surveillance. Efforts are being made to undertake
pro-active preventive vigilance measures. This is to ensure fair systems and procedures in
place thereby increasing transparency and reducing scope for discretion.
During the period 2022-23, the vigilance department investigated in detail 6 complaints
and 41 complaints forwarded to concerned department for necessary action. Total 114
preventive/surprise checks were conducted in catering and e ticketing sector. The
malpractices and incidents of corruption so detected were communicated to the concerned
department for strict action against the licensees and erring employees. The resultant
fine recovered was to the tune of H19,90,745/-. Further, on recommendation of Vigilance
department, 03 nos. system improvements were implemented by various departments to
minimise instances of malpractices, especially in the procurement, catering and
e-ticketing sector.
As mandated by CVC guidelines, the CMD undertook periodical review of activities and
performance of vigilance department with the CVO. As per the directives of Central
Vigilance Commission (CVC) "Vigilance Awareness Week" observed at IRCTC from 31st
October, 2022 to 6th November 2022 with the theme, "^??Q>MMMA _W?$
^MAV - {DH${GV ^MAV"; Corruption free India for a developed Nation"; Corruption
free India for a developed Nation" and all employees took "Integrity
Pledge". Various programmes/ competitions/ Seminars were conducted in all the offices
of the IRCTC with a view to create awareness about preventive measures through system
improvement. Moreover, new initiatives were implemented like "TEJASathon" in
which interactive session with passengers were done for increasing awareness among general
public. It was observed to encourage all stakeholders, employees, associated vendors and
citizens to collectively participate and fight against corruption and to raise public
awareness regarding the existence, causes and gravity and the threat posed by corruption.
Integrity Pact
IRCTC has implemented the integrity pact programme in line with the recommendations of
the Central Vigilance Commission with an objective to ensure that all activities and
transactions between a Company or Government departments and their Suppliers are handled
in a fair, transparent and corruption-free manner. The adoption of the Integrity Pact by
IRCTC has helped in establishing healthy business practices. To ensure transparency and
healthy competitiveness in public procurements/ contracts, IRCTC has adopted the Integrity
Pact. One Independent External monitor is appointed in IRCTC with the approval of the CVC.
Currently Dr. Parvez Hayat, IPS (Retired) is IEM for Integrity Pact in IRCTC. A
coordinator has also been appointed for Integrity Pact for monitoring and implementation
of Integrity Pact. Integrity Pact now being used in all the tenders which are beyond the
identified threshold values.
Whistle-Blower Policy/ Establishment Of Vigil Mechanism
Disclosure regarding establishment of vigil mechanism is included under the Corporate
Governance Report at Annexure-"B". Apart from vigil mechanism, Company
has a full fledged Vigilance Department headed by Chief Vigilance Officer. The Department
operates on the guidelines of Central Vigilance Commission on Vigilance management in
Public SectorEnterprises and is guided further by instructions issued by the Department of
Personnel and Training. The prime focus of Vigilance activities has been Preventive and
Participative Vigilance by having regular interaction with employees and other
stakeholders to spread awareness among the masses.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The Company has been actively engaged in various CSR activities over the years,
encompassing the entire gamut of social welfare / upliftment activities across the nation.
The Company has identified thrust areas under CSR, which inter alia include healthcare and
sanitation, education and empowerment of women and socially / economically backward
groups, etc. During the year, the Company spent the entire budget of H12.53 crore on
various CSR activities. A report on the Company's CSR activities as per the provisions of
the Companies Act along with the CSR highlights for the year is annexed at Annexure-"C"
to the report. The composition of the CSR Committee is provided in the Corporate
Governance Report. The CSR policy of the Company can be accessed at the website of the
Company on the web link https://www.irctc.com/assets/images/CSR-Vision-Document.pdf
COMPLIANCES
Right to Information Act
An elaborate mechanism has been set up throughout the Company to deal with matters
relating to The Right to Information Act 2005. As required under the RTI Act, detailed
information is hosted and regularly updated on the official website of the Company,
i.ehttps://www. irctc.com/rti.html which inter-alia includes details of CPIOs /
APIOs/Appellate Authorities, third party audited reports on mandatory disclosures, etc. To
deal with RTI applications in a fast track mode, IRCTC generates one Unique Registration
No. (URN) for each application and the same is replied by the concerned CPIO/PIO well
within the prescribed time limit.
The Company has aligned with the online RTI portal launched by DoPT, Govt. of India,
and all the applications/ appeals received through the portal are disposed off through the
portal only. The Quarterly Reports / Annual Reports are submitted, within the prescribed
timeline, on the website of the Central Information Commission, i.e., www.cic.gov.in.
During 2022-23, a total of 1836 RTI Applications and 141 RTI Appeals under the
RTI Act, 2005 were received and all the applications were dealt/disposed off in a timely
manner.
Particulars |
Opening balance as on 31.03.2022 |
No. of applications received as transfer from other PAs u/s 6(3) |
Received during the year [including cases transferred to other PAs] |
No. of cases transferred to other PAs u/s 6(3) |
Decisions where requests/ appeals rejected |
Decisions where requests/ appeals replied |
Closing balance as on 31.03.2023# |
Requests |
101 |
0 |
1836 |
348 |
1 |
1555 |
33 |
First Appeals |
5 |
0 |
141 |
0 |
6 |
138 |
2 |
#-The pending cases were within stipulated time lime of 30
month as per the RTI Act, 2005. |
|
|
|
Presidential Directives
The Company follows the Presidential Directives as and when received from Ministry of
Railways. However, no Presidential Directive was received during the year.
Rajbhasha (Official Language)
Presently, in the Corporate Office of IRCTC, Group General Manager/Rail Neer has been
designated as Chief Official Language Officer and Manager/Services/Administration as
Rajbhasha Adhikari to look after the administrative work of Hindi in addition to his
normal work. Apart from this, Rajbhasha Sahayaks are regularly performing all types of
work under them. Such as execution of works related to the Department of Official Language
in all zonal and regional offices of IRCTC, following and guiding the Annual Program
issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Official Language and informing
about all the work related to the Department of Official Language.
Similarly, in all the Zonal and Regional offices of IRCTC, retired officers from the
Department of Official Language of Central Government Offices/Undertakings/Public Bodies/
Departments Senior Official Language Officer/Official Language Officer, Senior Translator
and Translator have been engaged as Consultant/Official Language. Out of 05 zonal offices
of IRCTC, Consultant/Rajbhasha has been posted in 03 Zonal Offices, work of appointing
Consultant/ Official Language in the remaining 02 offices North and East Zone is under
process.
According to the Official Language Policy of the Government of India, it is required to
set up a Hindi book Library in every government office. In which proper arrangement of
furniture, Almirah, reading room etc. is necessary. In compliance of the above, a library
has been established in the Official Language Department of the Corporation Office.
Different types of interesting and informative Hindi books are available in the library.
These include novels, story collections, poetry collections and many analytical and
informative books on various contemporary subjects by eminent and well-known writers and
creators of Hindi literature. All these books are available at the Corporation's 10th
Floor, IRCTC, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001.
Hindi Pakhwada 2022
Hindi Pakhwada 2022 organized from 19th to 26th September, 2022
at IRCTC's Corporate Office, Internet Ticketing Center and Punj House. During Rajbhasha
Week, instructions were given to propagate the Hindi Day messages of Railway Minister and
Chairman and Managing Director/IRCTC in all regional and subordinate offices along with
corporateoffice and banners of Rajbhasha Week in every subordinate office of corporate
office were displayed.
Various competitions such as Hindi essay, Hindi noting-drafting and word knowledge,
Hindi dictation, "Hindi's condition and future" - speech competition etc. were
organized. A total no. of 162 contestants participated in the competitions held this year
2022.
Inspection by Parliamentary Committees
Official Language Inspection of IRCTC Zonal Offices, South Zone/Chennai, South Central
Zone/Secunderabad, East Zone/Kolkata and its Regional Offices, Jaipur and Patna by the
Second Sub-Committee of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language were successful
during the year 2022 and expressed satisfaction over the progress of Official Language in
IRCTC office and praised the work done in official language. Certificates were awarded by
the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language for successful inspection and excellent
coordination of zonal offices of IRCTC.
Inspection of Regional Office/Jaipur.
The second sub-committee of the parliamentary committee inspected Jaisalmer, Jodhpur
and nearby Central Government offices/undertakings from February 24 to 28, 2023. In which
Jaipur, office was inspected on February 28, 2023 which was completely successful.
Inspection of Zonal Office/Chennai.
On 18.05.22, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language inspected the office of
IRCTC, Southern Zone. In this meeting, the parliamentary committee was chaired by Mrs.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, in which Mrs. Ranjanben Bhatt, Mr. Manoj Tiwari, etc. MPs were
present. The Parliamentary Committee appreciated the systematic and well coordinated work
done by the Chennai office.
Inspection of Zonal Office/Secunderabad.
On 24.08.22, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language inspected the office of
IRCTC, South Central Zone. The meeting was chaired by the Parliamentary Committee, Smt.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi.
Inspection of Regional Office/Patna.
On 10.05.22, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language inspected the Regional
Office of IRCTC, Patna. In this meeting, the Parliamentary Committee was chaired by Mr.
Bhatrihari Mahtab, in which Mrs. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Mr. Manoj Tiwari, Mrs. Sangeeta
Yadav etc. MPs were present.
Apart from this, the quarterly meetings of the Corporation Official Language
Implementation Committee are organized regularly at the end of every quarter by the
Department of Official Language. The corporate office regularly participates in the
meetings of the Railway Hindi Salahkar Samiti organized in the Railway Board, the meetings
of the Railway Board Official Language Implementation Committee, the meeting of the
Railway Official Language Officers and all the meetings organized by Narakas
(undertakings). IRCTC and its zonal & regional offices are also active member of the
Official Language Implementation Committee (NARAKAS) which consists of all the Top
Undertakings of the Government of India.
Disclosure Requirement under Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place Act (Prevention,
Prohibition and Redressal Act) 2013
The provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition
and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the rules thereon are being strictly complied with. The
Company is committed to the prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace and
takes prompt action in the event of reporting of such incidents. In accordance with the
Act, to provide protection against sexual harassment of women at workplace and to maintain
their safety, IRCTC has nominated the Internal Complaints Committee(s) with the
composition as required under the Act, at the Corporate Office as well as Zonal offices of
the company.
During the FY 2022-23, three (3) complaints under Sexual Harassment were filed, out of
which two (2) were disposed off during the year. However, as on March 31, 2023, one (1)
complaint was pending, which has also been resolved after the closure of the financial
year
Procurement from Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)
In line with the Public Procurement Policy of the Government of India, as amended, the
Company is required to procure minimum 25% of the total procurement of Goods and Services
from MSEs, out of which 4% is earmarked for procurement from MSEs owned by SC / ST
entrepreneurs and 3% from MSEs owned by women. The procurement from MSEs during FY 2022-23
was as under:
Parameters |
Targets |
Actual |
Total Procurement from MSEs (General, Reserved SC/ST & Women) |
25% |
36.51 % |
Procurement from |
4% (Sub-target |
0.057 % |
Reserved SC/ST MSEs |
out of 25%) |
|
Procurement from |
3% (Sub-target |
0.64 % |
Women owned MSEs |
out of 25%) |
|
The deficit under the sub-targets was due to non-availability of vendors;
Several initiatives were undertaken to identify the entrepreneurs for procurement of
goods and services from MSEs owned by SC / ST enterprises.
In exercise of powers conferred by Section 9 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise
Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006), the Central Government issued instructions all CPSEs
shall be required to get themselves on boarded on the Trade Receivables Discounting System
(TReDS) platform, set up as per the notification of the Reserve Bank of India.
In compliance with the above instructions, your Company is on the TReDS platform to
facilitate financing of trade receivables of MSEs by discounting of their receivables and
realisation of their payment before the due date.
During FY 2022-23, 01 complaint (Rail Neer) was filed by the MSEs, on MSME SAMADHAN
Delayed Payment Monitoring System, which is under hearing in MSEFC.
COMPLIANCES UNDER COMPANIES ACT 2013 / SEBI (LODR) REGULATIONS 2015
Annual Return
As required under the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, the Annual Return is
hosted on the Company's website and can be accessed from the link https://irctc.
com/Annual%20Return.html
Deposits
The Company has not accepted or invited any deposits from the public under Chapter V of
the Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies (Acceptance of Deposit) Rules, 2014 during the
year under review. Therefore, the information required to be reported under Rule 8 (5) (v)
of Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 is NIL.
Further, as provided in Secretarial Standards, information regarding details of
National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)/National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)
orders with respect to depositors for extension of time for repayment, penalty imposed, if
any is also NIL.
Particulars of loans & guarantees given, investments made and securities provided
During the year, the Company has not provided any loan, made any investment; or
provided any guarantee under section 186 of Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies
(Meetings of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014. Therefore, the information to be reported
under section 186 of the Companies Act 2013 is NIL.
Contracts and arrangements with related parties
In line with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 & SEBI guidelines, a policy
on material RPTs has been framed, which can be accessed on the link https://www.irctc.com/
assets/images/IRCTC%20RPT_07112022.pdf
The Company has undertaken transactions with related parties (Ministry of Railways,
Government of India, Government companies/departments under Ministry of Railways, such as
CRIS, Railtel and RVNL) during the year in the ordinary course of business and at arm's
length. The disclosures related to RPTs in accordance with applicable accounting standards
are provided at Note-44 of the Standalone Financial Statement of the Company.
In view thereof, Form No. AOC-2, in terms of Section 134(3) (h) read with Section 188
of the Act and Rule 8(2) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 is annexed to report as
"Annexure-Rs.".
Internal Financial Control System
Your Company has put in place adequate Internal Financial Controls by laying down
policies and procedures to ensure the efficient conduct of its business, safeguarding of
its assets, prevention and detection of frauds and errors, accuracy and completeness of
the accounting records, and timely preparation of reliable financial information
commensurate with the operations of the Company. Effectiveness of Internal Financial
Controls is ensured through management reviews, self-assessment and independent testing by
the Internal Auditor indicating that your Company has adequate Internal Financial Controls
over Financial Reporting in compliance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and
such Internal Financial Controls are operating effectively. The Audit Committee reviews
the Internal Financial Controls to ensure its effectiveness for achieving the intended
purpose. Independent Auditors Report on the Internal Financial Controls of the Company in
terms of Clause (i) of Sub-Section 3 of Section 143 of the Companies Act, 2013 by the
Statutory Auditors is placed along with the Financial Statements.
M/s S.K. Gujarati, Chartered Accountants were engaged for certification of internal
financial control (IFC) for FY 2022-23, in accordance with the provisions of Companies
Act, 2013.
The report of Internal Auditor and Internal Financial Control was placed before the
Audit Committee for the consideration and deliberations. Details of the internal control
system are provided in the Management Discussion and Analysis Report given at Annexure-"A".
Risk Management
The Company has formed a Board Level Risk Management Committee and the details of the
composition, meeting held and terms of reference are included under the Report of
Corporate Governance placed as Annexure -''B''.
The Company also has a below Board level Committee constituted of GGM level officers,
including GM (Quality projects & Corporate Co-odrdination) as Chief Risk Officer
(CRO). The functions of the Committee are to identify the risks related to the specific
business segments of IRCTC in order to establish an appropriate risk management framework
in the Company.
During quarterly meetings of below Board Risk Management Committee, various risks have
been identified and deliberated at the Board level committee. Some of the major risks
identified are as mentioned below:
(i) Strategic and Business Risks (ii) Reputation Risk (iii) Business Continuity Risk
(iv) Catering Operations Risk (v) Rail Neer Operations Risk
The details of the identified risks with their mitigation strategies are mentioned in
the Management Discussion & Analysis Report enclosed as Annexure-"A".
Significant and Material Orders
There are no significant or material orders passed by the regulators or courts or
tribunals impacting the going concern status and the Company's operations in future.
Secretarial Standards
The Company has complied with Secretarial Standards issued by the Institute of Company
Secretaries of India to the extent applicable.
Investor Education & Protection Fund (IEPF)
The details of unpaid / unclaimed dividend and shares transferred to the IEPF in
compliance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 has been provided in the
Corporate Governance Report.
Reporting of frauds by auditors
The Auditors in their report for the year have not reported any instance of fraud
committed by the officers/employees of the Company.
Credit Rating of securities
During FY 22-23, the Company has not received any credit rating by the rating agencies.
Further details are mentioned in the Corporate Governance Report.
Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process initiated under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy
Code, 2016
The Company has no information to disclose under above.
Failure to implement any Corporate Action
The Company has implemented all Corporate Actions successfully within prescribed
timelines. Therefore, the Company has nothing to report.
Green initiatives in Corporate Governance
In line with relaxations extended by MCA and SEBI due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in
furtherance of the Green Initiative', the Company has effected the delivery of
Notice of the AGM and the Annual Report through electronic mode only to those Members
whose e-mail IDs were registered with the respective Depository Participants viz. National
Securities Depository Limited and Central Depository Services (India) Limited. Further,
as a part of green initiative, the agenda for the meetings are sent through electronic
mode ensuring encryption and password protection.
Particulars relating to Conservation of energy, Technology Absorption and Foreign
Exchange Earnings and Outgo etc.
The details pertaining to Conservation of Energy and Technology Absorption; and Foreign
Exchange Earnings and Outgo, as required to be disclosed under Section 134(3)(m) of the
Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 8 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 is given as
under:
All out efforts and initiatives are taken by IRCTC to minimise adverse environmental
impacts from its operations, products & services by using processes, practices,
materials and products that avoid, reduce and control pollution. Compliance with the
relevant environmental laws and effective operation of the various pollution control
facilities are ensured at all the plants/units for ensuring a safe and clean environment
and to reduce the dependence on conventional energy sources.
Further, in its catering operations, the Company has adopted several innovative
techniques to save energy and water in its Base kitchen at NDLS by shifting on Piped
Natural Gas based cooking instead of traditional LPG cylinder and re-using of RO waste
water in cleaning, washing and bathrooms at BK-NDLS.
The details on the above are mentioned in the Business Responsibility Report enclosed
as Annexure "D".
Technology Absorption-
Details are mentioned below in the table:
S. No. |
Particulars |
Status |
(a) |
the details of technology imported; |
NIL |
(b) |
the year of import; |
NA |
(c) |
whether the technology has been |
NA |
|
fully absorbed; |
|
(d) |
if not fully absorbed, areas where |
NA |
|
absorption has not taken place, and |
|
|
the reasons thereof; |
|
Expenditure incurred on Research and Development.
Your Company does not undertake exclusive research projects as it does not have the
presence in such a domain. However, to improve the technical capability and enhance
competence, some methods and techniques have been developed and innovative systems have
been introduced for its business segments.
Foreign Exchange Earnings and Outgo
The Foreign Exchange earned in terms of actual inflows during the year and the Foreign
Exchange outgo during the year, in terms of actual outflows, compared to previous year is
mentioned below:
(Rs. in cr)
Particulars |
2022-23 |
2021-22 |
Foreign Exchange |
27.37 |
19.37 |
Earning |
|
|
Foreign Exchange |
|
|
Outgo |
|
|
Foreign Travelling |
0.23 |
0.01 |
Expenses |
|
|
Other Expenses |
0.24 |
- |
Retirement of Directors by Rotation
In accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Articles of
Association of the Company, Shri Neeraj Sharma, ED (PM), Railway Board & Government
Nominee Director and Shri Ajit kumar, Director (Finance) are liable to retire by rotation
at the ensuing 24th AGM of the Company and being eligible, offers themselves
for re-appointment. The details of such directors seeking re-appointment at ensuing AGM
are contained in the Notice of AGM.
Policy on Performance Evaluation of Directors
The provisions of Section 134(3)(p) of the Companies Act, 2013 require a listed entity
to include a statement indicating the manner of formal evaluation of performance of the
Board, its Committees and of individual Directors. However, the said provisions are exempt
for Government Companies as per Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)'s notifications dated
05.06.2015 and 05.07.2017. IRCTC being a Government Company under the administrative
control of the Ministry of Railways is also exempted from the above mentioned provisions
of Companies Act.
In IRCTC, the evaluation of performance of Functional Directors includes
self-evaluation by the respective functional directors and subsequent assessment by CMD
with final evaluation by the Ministry of Railways.
The performance evaluation of CMD includes self evaluation and final evaluation by the
Ministry of Railways.
In respect of Government Nominee Directors, their evaluation is done by the Ministry of
Railways as per the procedure laid down. Since, Independent Directors are appointed by the
administrative ministry, their evaluation is also done by the Ministry of Railways and
Department of Public Enterprises.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Aiming to achieve significant pinnacle through a common knowledge management portal,
which helps in identifying, creating, organising, distributing and transferring vital
knowledge among employees within and across organisations, therefore, the SAMANVAYA
platform has been developed by the Department of Public Enterprises. IRCTC is an active
member on the platform and updates the details related to the Company regularly.
Likewise, the DRISHTI Dashboard has been created as a part of Vision New India 2022 to
reform the role and responsibilities of CPSEs through real-time monitoring of their action
plans, derived from the challenges posed out of the CPSE Conclave. The company has fed the
information on the portal and regular updation is also being done.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The performance of the Company has been rated as "Excellent" based on
the outcomes achieved with reference to the key performance indicators (KPIs) enshrined in
the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the financial year 2021-22.
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
1. On World Tourism Day and IRCTC Foundation Day i.e. 27th Sept, 2022; IRCTC
received two National Tourism Awards 2022 for :
- Tourism Promotional Film (Northern Region) for Buddhist Circuit Tourist Train- Short
Film (05.38 minutes).
- Most innovative use of Information Technology- Social Media/ Mobile App/ Website
(Northern Region).
2. Green ECO-Tourism Destination Award of the year / Asia's Green Future leader awards.
3. Women Leader of the year / Asia's Green Future leader awards.
4. Green CSR Initiative Awards of the year / Asia's Green Future leader awards.
5. Best Luxury Train - Maharajas' Express, Best Heritage Experience-Golden Chariot,
Best Luxury Rail Operator IRCTC / Luxury Segment travel Awards 2022 by Seven Star Media
Corporation
6. Asia's most trusted companies awards 2022 / IBC Corporate Awards 2022.
7. Use of Emerging Technologies Artificial intelligence / Governance now PSU IT Awards.
Joint Ventures/Subsidiaries
The company's only Joint Venture with Cox & Kings Limited, with 50:50 equity in the
name of Royale Indian Rail Tours Limited (RIRTL), was incorporated on 27th
November, 2008 with an objective to acquire, furnish, maintain, manage and operate luxury
trains and to market holiday packages with such luxury trains as an integral part.
Accordingly, a luxury train having 23 coaches was manufactured, fabricated and funded
by the company and was marketed in the name of Maharajas' Express and was leased to the
Royale Indian Rail Tours Limited (RIRTL) for the purpose of running, operating and
managing the luxury tourist train for a period of 15 years. However, due to certain issues
between the equity partners, the lease of the luxury train was withdrawn and the JV
Agreement dated 10th December, 2008 was terminated on 12th August
2011. The Hon'ble Supreme Court permitted IRCTC to operate the said luxury train. Cox
& Kings Limited initiated arbitration proceedings seeking restoration of Joint Venture
Agreement. The final arguments have been addressed before Arbitral Tribunal and the Award
has been reserved vide hearing dated 09.05.2023.
IRCTC has also filed a petition against Royale Indian Rail Tours Limited (RIRTL) and
Cox & Kings Limited and others before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) (erstwhile
Company Law Board) under sections 388B, 397, 398, 399 and 403 of the Companies Act, 1956
and the said petition is sub-judice and listed for arguments. NCLT has declared the said
company (RIRTL) to be in managerial dispute. Details of the Joint Venture are covered in
the notes to accounts of the financial statements for the periods ending 31st
March, 2023 vide note no. 37.2 and 45. The parties have also taken permission from the
NCLT for not holding the Board and General meetings of RITRL without its approval in July,
2013.
Consolidation of financial statements
As mentioned in the paragraph above, the Board meetings and general meetings have not
been held in RIRTL since financial year 2010-2011, due to pending dispute with Cox
& Kings Limited. Therefore, the consolidation of financial statements as required
under section 129(3) of the Companies Act 2013 could not be done as also explained and
disclosed vide Note No. 45 of the Notes to accounts of the financial statements for the
period ending 31st March 2023.
AUDITORS
Statutory Auditor
Under Section 139(5) of the Companies Act 2013, Comptroller & Auditor General of
India has appointed M/s P. R. Mehra & Co., Chartered Accountants as Statutory Auditor
of the Company to audit the financial statements for the financial year 2022-23. The
details of payment made to Statutory Auditor during financial year 2022-23 on consolidated
basis is mentioned below:
Particulars |
Amount (Rs. in crore) |
Statutory Audit Fees, Tax Audit Fees and |
0.31 |
Limited Review Fees |
|
Secretarial Auditor
Pursuant to Section 204 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies (Appointment and
Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014, IRCTC has appointed M/s Kumar Naresh
Sinha & Associates, an independent firm of practicing Company Secretaries to conduct
Secretarial Audit for the financial year 2022-23.
The Secretarial Audit Report for the financial year ended March 31, 2023 is enclosed as
Annexure-"E" to this report.
Internal Auditor
As per the Section 138 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 13 of Companies
(Accounts) Rules 2014, the Company has appointed M/s S. Ramanand Aiyer & Co.,
Chartered Accountants, an independent accounting firm to undertake the assignment of
internal audit for FY 2022-23. The details regarding scope and functions of the firm is
placed in the Management Discussion and Analysis Report.
Cost Auditor
The business segments of IRCTC are not covered under Cost Audit Rules notified by
Ministry of Corporate Affairs. However, the Company conducted the cost audit of cost
records maintained by the Rail Neer Plants on a voluntary basis only through M/s Rs..M.V.N
& Associates as the Cost Auditor for the year 2022-23.
COMMENTS OF COMPTROLLER & AUDITOR GENERAL (C&AG) OF INDIA
The Comptroller & Auditor General of India has undertaken supplementary audit on
the financial statements of the Company for the year ended 31st March, 2023
under Section 143(6) of the Companies Act, 2013.
The comments of the C&AG on the Annual Accounts of the Company for the year ended
31st March, 2023 shall also form part of this report.
DIRECTORS' RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT
The Board of Directors of the Company in pursuance of section 134 (5) of Companies Act,
2013 confirms that:
(i) in the preparation of the annual accounts, the applicable accounting standards have
been followed along with proper explanation relating to material departures;
(ii) the Directors have selected such accounting policies and applied them consistently
and made judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent so as to give a true and
fair view of the state of affairs of the company at the end of the financial year and of
the profit or loss of the company for that period;
(iii) the Directors have taken proper and sufficient care for the maintenance of
adequate accounting records in accordance with the provisions of this Act for safeguarding
the assets of the company and for preventing and detecting fraud and other irregularities;
(iv) the Directors have prepared the annual accounts on a going concern basis; and
(v) the Directors have devised proper systems to ensure compliance with the provisions
of all applicable laws and that such systems were adequate and operating effectively.
DIRECTORS AND KEY MANAGERIAL PERSONNEL (KMPs)
The Chairman & Managing Director (CEO), Director (Finance), Director (Catering
Services), Director (Tourism & Marketing), Chief Financial Officer and Company
Secretary are Key Managerial Personnel (KMPs) of the Company.
The following changes have taken place in the Board of Directors and Key Managerial
Personnel of your Company since the last Annual General Meeting:
i. Shri Vishwanath Shanker (DIN: 07903588), former ED (Planning), Railway Board and
Government Nominee Director, ceased to be a Director of the Company w.e.f. July 29, 2022,
in accordance with Ministry of Railways' Order No. ERB-I/2022/2/59 dated July 29, 2022.
ii. Shri Debashis Chandra (DIN: 08641893), former Director (Catering Services),
attained the age of superannuation and ceased to be a Director of the Company w.e.f.
September 01, 2022.
iii. Shri Manoj Kumar Gangeya (DIN: 09744752), ED (Planning), Railway Board was
appointed as Government Nominee Director on the Board of IRCTC w.e.f. September 21, 2022,
pursuant to Ministry of Railways' Order dated September 19, 2022
iv. Dr. Lokiah Ravikumar (DIN: 10045466) was appointed as Additional Director {Director
(Catering Services)} on the Board of IRCTC w.e.f. February 11, 2023, pursuant to Ministry
of Railways' letter dated February 09, 2023.
v. Smt. Seema Kumar (DIN: 10064353), AM (T&C), Railway Board was appointed as
Additional Director {Chairman and Managing Director (Additional Charge)} on the
Board of IRCTC w.e.f. June 01, 2023, in accordance with Ministry of Railways' letter
dated May 29, 2023.
vi. Shri Kamlesh Kumar Mishra (DIN: 10186377), ED(BD), Railway Board was appointed as
Additional Director {Director (Tourism & Marketing) (Additional Charge)} on the Board
of IRCTC w.e.f. June 01, 2023, in accordance with Ministry of Railways' letter dated May
29, 2023.
vii. Shri Devendra Pal Bharti (DIN:10198557) was appointed as Additional Director
(Independent Director) on the Board of IRCTC w.e.f. June 05, 2023, in accordance with
Railway Board's Order dated June 05, 2023.
The following Directors are holding office as on the date of the report:-
S. |
Particulars |
Date of Appointment |
No. |
|
|
1. |
Smt. Seema Kumar (DIN: 10064353), AM (T&C), Railway Board & Chairman
and Managing Director (Additional Charge) |
From 1st June, 2023 onwards |
2. |
Shri Ajit Kumar (DIN: 07247362) Director (Finance) |
From 29th May, 2020 onwards |
3. |
Dr. Lokiah Ravikumar (DIN: 10045466) Director (Catering Services) |
From 11th February, 2023 onwards |
4. |
Shri Kamlesh Kumar Mishra (DIN: 10186377) ED (BD), Railway Board & Director
(Tourism & Marketing) |
From 1st June, 2023 onwards |
5. |
Shri Neeraj Sharma (DIN 08177824) ED (PM), Railway Board & Part-time
Government Director |
From 12th July, 2018 onwards |
6. |
Shri Manoj Kumar Gangeya (DIN: 09744752) ED (Planning), Railway Board &
Part-time Government Director |
From 21st September, 2022 onwards |
7. |
Shri Vinay Kumar Sharma (DIN: 03604125) Independent Director |
From 9th November, 2021 onwards |
8. |
Shri Namgyal Wangchuk (DIN: 09397676) Independent Director |
From 12th November, 2021 onwards |
9. |
Shri Devendra Pal Bharti (DIN: 10198557) Independent Director |
From 9th June, 2023 onwards |
INTEGRAl REPORTS
The following reports as reproduced in the table below with relevant sub-appendices
form an integral part of this Directors' Report, and have been placed with their Annexures
respectively:
Name of the Report |
Annexure |
Management Discussion and Analysis Report |
"A" |
Report on Corporate Governance |
"B" |
Annual Report on CSR and Sustainability Activities |
"C" |
Business Responsibility & Sustainability Report |
"D" |
Secretarial Auditor Report |
"E" |
Management replies to observations contained in the Secretarial Auditor Report |
"F" |
Management replies to remarks contained in the Independent Auditor's Report |
"G" |
Form AOC-2 |
"Rs." |
The Management Discussion and Analysis Report provides an overview of the affairs of
the Company, its legal status and autonomy, business environment, mission &
objectives, sectoral and segment-wise operational performance, strengths, opportunities,
constraints, strategy and risks and concerns, as well as human resource and internal
control systems
[Annexure "A" ].
The Report on Corporate Governance highlights the philosophy of Corporate Governance
and Key Values of the Company, composition of its Board of Directors and its Committees,
their details including profile of directors who joined the Board during 2022-23 and
thereafter, attendance and remuneration of directors etc., other relevant disclosures and
general information for shareholders [Annexure "B"]. It is
supplemented by the following compliance certificates:
i. Certificate signed by the Chairman & Managing Director affirming receipt of
compliance with the Code of Conduct and Key Values from all Board members and Senior
Management personnel during the year 2022-23. (placed at Appendix "B1");
ii. Certificate from Chairman & Managing Director and Director Finance (CFO) with
respect to the truth and fairness of the Financial Statements, due compliances, and
financial reporting (placed at Appendix "B2");
iii. Certificate of compliance of Corporate Governance provisions signed by a
practising company secretary (placed at Appendix "B3");
iv. Certificate by practising Company Secretary regarding non-disqualification of
directors of the Company (placed at Appendix-"B4").
The Annual Report on CSR and Sustainability Activities provides a brief outline of the
company's CSR and Sustainability policy, the composition of the CSR Committee, the average
net profit of the Company for the last three financial years, prescribed CSR expenditure,
and details of CSR spent on the activities / projects undertaken during the financial year
etc. [Annexure "C"].
Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report
As per Regulation 34 of SEBI (LODR), 2015, the top one thousand listed entities based
on market capitalisation (calculated as on March 31 of every financial year) shall include
in its Annual Report a business responsibility and sustainability report (BRSR),
describing the initiatives taken by them from an environmental, social and governance
perspective, in the format as specified by the SEBI from time to time.
Accordingly, considering the fact that the Company, as of 31st March 2023,
is amongst the top 1000 listed entities as per the criteria, the business responsibility
and sustainability report is prepared and annexed to this report as Annexure
"D".
Secretarial Audit Report
Pursuant to Section 204 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies (Appointment and
Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014, IRCTC has appointed M/s Kumar Naresh
Sinha & Associates, Company Secretaries, an independent practicing firm of Company
Secretaries to conduct Secretarial Audit for the financial year 2022-23. The Secretarial
Audit Report for the financial year ended March 31, 2023 is annexed to this Report [Annexure
"E"].
The replies of the management to the observations contained in the Secretarial Audit
Report for the FY 2022-23 are placed as Annexure-"F".
The replies of the management to the remarks/emphasis of matter made by the Independent
Auditor in his report on the financial statements for the year 2022-23 are placed as
Annexure-"G".
The Form AOC-2 prescribed under clause (h) of sub-section (3) of section 134 of
Companies Act and Rule (8) of the Companies (Accounts) Rule is enclosed as Annexure-"Rs.".
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Your Directors gratefully acknowledge all the support and guidance extended by Ministry
of Railways, Ministry of Tourism, DIPAM, Ministry of Finance, Department of Public
Enterprises, various State Governments, and all other departments and agencies of the
Government of India in the Company's operations and developmental plans. The Directors
also express their gratitude to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Statutory
Auditors, Secretarial Auditor and Cost Auditors for constructive suggestions and
continuous cooperation.
The Directors place on record their sincere appreciation towards the Company's valued
customers and esteemed shareholders for the support and confidence reposed by them in the
management of the Company and look forward to the continuance of the same in future.
The Directors also wish to place on record their appreciation for the continued
cooperation received from all the technology collaborators, suppliers, contractors and for
the support provided by the financial institutions, bankers and stock exchanges.
Your Directors also wish to place on record their sincere appreciation for the diligent
efforts, hard work and commitment put in by all IRCTC employees.
For and on behalf of Board of Directors
|
(Seema Kumar) |
Place: New Delhi |
Chairperson & Managing Director |
Date: 04.07.2023 |
DIN: 10064353 |
|