Almost 10 months after announcing a “rethink” on its ambitious plan to set up 100 budget hotels called “Rail Ratna” across the country, the Railway Ministry has finally decided to allow its subsidiary Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to construct only 22 of them through public-private partnerships.
The newly constituted Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), set up with a specific mandate of commercially utilising Railways’ surplus land, is tipped to be now tasked with getting the remaining 78 budget hotels constructed.
Significantly, the Rail Bhavan has pulled out seven sites out of the total 29 for which the IRCTC had already initiated a process of short-listing private players. The sites removed from the list include Mumbai (Carnac Bunder), Chennai Central, Agra, Chandigarh, Pune, Secunderabad and Anand Vihar (New Delhi).
The official reason being given for the move is that the railway stations at all these locations have to be made into world-class stations and allowing private players to construct budget hotels there could lead to a clash of interest later.
Further, the Railway Ministry asked the IRCTC to negotiate with private players, taking into account fresh conditions introduced by the ministry. In the past, the ministry had stipulated that 25 per cent of the rooms have to be priced at Rs 1,000 per night and another 25 per cent at Rs 2,000 per night, while the remaining rooms can be priced according to market rates.
Now, the ministry also wants to ensure that 25 per cent of the total accommodation in the budget hotels is reserved for railway passengers.
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