IRCTC needs to be modernised, says Trivedi IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System 2011

New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) With frequent complaints about IRCTC services, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi today expressed dissatisfaction with its functioning, saying the corporation needs to be modernised. "I am not happy with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, the way it is functioning. We had a meeting on IRCTC yesterday. The website of the IRCTC needs to be strengthened and modernised," Trivedi told reporters. There have been frequent complaints about IRCTC services including its catering service on board trains and its online passenger reservation system Railways have already divested the IRCTC, a PSU under it, from catering responsibility after recurring complaints about its service. The Minister informed that SIMRAN (Satellite Imaging Rail Navigation) system for tracking trains on real-time basis would be operational soon. Admitting the lack of basic amenities outside railway stations, Trivedi said he will write to all Chief Ministers and Mayors for improving the conditions outside stations. "We have plan for modernisation of stations to provide more facilities like restaurant, mall, bookstore, multiplex for passengers," he said. Trivedi said all rail land records would be digitalised. On railways social responsibility, he said "Out of 150 projects only 14 are financially viable. But all these projects are socially desirable. There are remote areas which are strategically important and need to be linked with rail." On public private participation (PPP) he said "we cannot move ahead without PPP. We have to have PPP. In 12th Plan one trillion dollars is reuired for infrastructure. and out of this 50 per cent is coming from private sector." He said each MP wants train stoppage and new train for his constituency

BHUBANESWAR: The Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a mini-Ratna PSU, on Tuesday inked an MoU with the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) to promote tourist places in the State.

�IRCTC, which offers rail tour packages, has identified a number of destinations to woo tourists and offered 10 tourist packages to the OTDC in the first phase. The places it would cover from Bhubaneswar include Goa, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan, Shirdi, Tirupati and Mathura for outbound tourists. For inbound tourism, the OTDC has offered seven packages to the IRCTC, which would sell the Golden Triangle� comprising Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar as the USP of Orissa Tourism.

�IRCTC chief regional manager (East Coast Railway), Amlan Kumar Biswal said according to the MoU, IRCTC would market tourism products of Orissa at all its counters across the country and as a part of its packages, would provide accommodation, train tickets and sightseeing and food facilities to the Oriya tourists. Special facilities will also be provided to State’s tourists opting for Bharat Darshan package of IRCTC that has been receiving an overwhelming response as it was an affordable package tour that covered prominent temples.

�Similar arrangements will be made by OTDC for tourists who come to the State through IRCTC.

�“The packages are all affordable and have been designed for tourists hard pressed for time. IRCTC would arrange full trains, coaches as well as reserved berths in regular trains depending on the inflow of customers,”� said OTDC general manager� M R Patnaik.