IRCTC earns Rs 29 cr from food business

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has earned Rs 29 crore from its 80 non- railway catering outlets across the country in 2012-13, a jump of Rs 18 crore compared to previous year.
"We have now ventured into catering services, starting from food kiosks and cafeterias to food courts in the non- railway sector. There are about 80 such catering units in various government offices, educational institutions and other places," a senior IRCTC official said.
Catering in train was primary business of IRCTC before 2010. However, railways decided to divest the corporation of its catering contracts in trains as per the new catering policy in 2010 and as a result IRCTC has to look for new ventures in the non-railway sector.

"We explored catering business in government offices and other institutions. Currently we have cafeterias in Shastri Bhawan (New Delhi), Writers' Building and Kolkata High Court (Kolkata), Bhilai Steel Plant, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai and in several other states as well," he said.
IRCTC has also recently opened catering units at IIT- Chennai and Trivandrum Medical College, Delhi University, Vadodara Postal Training College, Cochin Info Park and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow.
"We serve variety of food items starting from tea, snacks and other beverages to thali and meal combos in these outlets. People are happy to have hygienic food at affordable price," he said, adding "negotiations are on with some institutions to open cafeterias."

During 2012-13, IRCTC achieved a total income of Rs 719.69 crore with a gross profit of Rs 92.41 crore compared to a total income of Rs 554.11 crore with a gross profit of Rs 76.54 crore in 2011-12. The net worth of the corporation has also increased to Rs 291.77 crore from last year's Rs 246.70 crore.