IRCTC spurts as railways to begin passenger train services

IRCTC hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 1302.85 after Ministry of Railways announced plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from 12 May 2020.

The railways will start passenger train operations with 15 pairs of trains, which means 30 journeys including the return trips. The passenger trains will have only AC coaches, and the fare structure will be similar to that of Rajdhani Express trains. These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

The bookings for special trains that will travel to major stations, with selective stoppages, will start from 4 PM onwards on 11 May and will be available only on the IRCTC website. Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. Further details including train schedule will be issued separately in due course.

Thereafter, Indian Railways shall start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as "Shramik Special" for stranded migrants.

IRCTC, a Mini Ratna public sector enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways, is the sole entity authorized by Indian Railways (IR) to provide catering services to railways, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations and trains in India. IRCTC operates in four business segments, namely, internet ticketing, catering, packaged drinking water and travel & tourism.

As of 31 March 2020, the Government of India held 87.40% stake in the company.

IRCTC's net profit surged 179.62% to Rs 205.80 crore on a 64.59% jump in net sales to Rs 715.98 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

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