With 9 new plants, IRCTC to meet 100 pc bottled water demand of rail passengers

New Delhi [India], Aug 29 (ANI): With nine new water bottling plants, the IRCTC is set to fulfil 100 per cent of demand of bottled water of the Indian Railways, according to a senior official.

Rail Neer is the bottled water brand of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRTC), a subsidiary of the national transporter.

Presently, IRCTC supplies about 11 lakh litres per day of bottled Rail Neer from its existing 10 plants which fall short of the estimated daily demand of 19 lakh litres of bottled water in railway premises across the country. The deficit is met by bottled water from other brands.

The demand is likely to be fulfilled once the production begins in the new plants.

IRCTC is constantly trying not to rely on the market for bottled water.

According to Group General Manager of IRCTC, Siyaram, the corporation had seven Rail Neer plants and in April 2019, new Rail Neer plants were set up in Hapur (Uttar Pradesh), Sanand (Gujarat) and Mandideep (Madhya Pradesh).

"The need for nine lakh litres of bottled water is supplied from the market. But six new plants at Nagpur, Sankrail (Howrah), Jagirod (Guwahati), Jabalpur, Bhusawal and Una are in an advanced stage of construction, which will start in March 2020. After this, Rail Neer plant is proposed to be set up at Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Bhuvner," he said.

About 20 lakh litres of bottled water will be supplied daily from these nine plants.

"After this, IRCTC itself will start meeting 100 per cent bottled water demand for Rail Neer. However, in the meantime, the demand of passengers for taking water from the water vending machine has increased and four lakh litres of water is being supplied daily through the water vending machine," he said.