Indian railways Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Tourism has emerged as one of the most important industry of the future. The multiplier effects
of tourism in terms of infrastructure development, employment generation, income generation,
and also conservation of priceless heritage, cultural deposits and development of potential
tourism places are significant. Indian railways have a glorious history of more than 150 years
from its inception and second largest rail network of the world and facilitating over 5 billion
passengers and over 350 million tons of freight annually. The rail network traverses the length
and breadth of the country, covering a total length of 67,368 kilometres, 7,349 stations,
144,068 over bridges, more than 19,000 trains, 39 steam, 6023 diesel, 5300 electric
locomotives, 64,223 passenger carriages and 2, 77,987 freight car wagons 13,08,000 total
number of employees. Thus, Indian Railways is playing a critical role in tourism promotion in
India.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) set up in 1999 with a
view to promote rail tourism in India. IRCTC established on 27th September, 1999 as prime
association in the Indian Railways to upgrade, professionalize and manage the catering and
hospitality offerings at various stations, on trains and other locations and
to promote domestic and international tourismthrough development of various price ranges of the
hotels, special tour packages, internet ticketing,packaged potable water, records and business ex
posure and global reservationsystem, price introduced products, and integrated offerings under a
single roof to all rail passengers, tourists and other customers with a mission to “Enhance
customer services and facilitation in railway catering, hospitality, travel and tourism with best
industry practices”. IRCTC has changed the face of Indian Railways with providing web based
services such as e-ticketing, development of rail portal, call centres etc. The Tejas Express (from
Lucknow to New Delhi and New Delhi to Lucknow) is first train fully operated by IRCTC based
on public partnership model with an average speed of 130 km/hr and offer on board catering
services to its passengers.