The Ministry of Railways has set up the IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) for transferring all responsibility for tourism and catering to this new corporation. This has been done to ensure professionalism and upgradation of service through private-public collaborations.

Tourism via railways will be the source of high growth in this sector by coordinating with other agencies such as tour operators, hotels, travel agents etc. On the plate is a dynamic strategy of marketing in collaboration with private and public agencies such as hoteliers, tour operators, transporting agencies, travel agents and state agencies.

Indian Railways has humungous potential for ICRTC as it carries along 13 million passengers daily. The mission of IRCTC is to enhance services of customers in railway hospitality, catering, travel and tourism with best practices of the industry.

Objectives of IRCTC are:

• To be totally friendly to customers and driven by innovation, technology changes and development of human resources.
• Using innovative practices of marketing and vending of quality products to increase productivity of man power and optimize resources.
• Upgradation and consolidation of services of catering in the organized sectors.
• To maximize returns on investment by enhancing areas of core competencies and enhance opportunities of business via efficient partnership between public and private agencies.
• Adopt ethical and strong work culture by team work, as well as reposition the Railways in the emerging economy.
• Develop superior standards of work ethics, cost control and quality management.
• Concern for heritage and environment.

Services by IRCTC –

• Tourism:

Ever since the set up of the IRCTC, tourism in India has witnessed a boom. They have developed   dynamic strategy of marketing by collaborating with tour operators and state agencies. They provide exclusive tour packages all around the country. IRCTC provides arrangements for charter of full train coaches and cabins and programs for reserved births through trains for promoting tourism. Already, 50,000 passengers have benefited from the program.

• Internet Reservations:

There has been a tremendous demand for ticket availability at the door step. IRCTC has already started these services in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. They are aiming to extend these services to Ahmadabad, Hyderabad and Pune in the near future. After this, the service will be expanded to other cities. The relevant website for internet booking is www.irctc.co.in.

• Food Plazas:

The IRCTC has planned to set up hundreds of food plazas across the various stations in the country. These are multi cuisine kiosks catering to the vast numbers of passengers. The food plazas will have air conditioned ambience, contemporary décor, and 24x 7 operations for the convenience of passengers. They charge competitive, market driven pricing.

• Call Centers:

The IRCTC has opened a call center. Any customer can dial from anywhere in the country to get information on Indian railways.

• Other Services:

The IRCTC time table is a comprehensive Indian Railways time table, which provides all information about running trains. Using the website, one can access IRCTC login train timings, which provide information on IRCTC train schedule.

These are some of the services offered by the IRCTC.