DREAD that trip to the railway station to buy train tickets, after standing in long queues? Now, there’s some relief. Passengers will soon be able to book train tickets at post offices and petrol pumps against cash payment as part of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd’s (IRCTC) expansion plans. Claimed to be the world’s largest e-commerce public sector undertaking, IRCTC has charted out ambitious plans to flood people with a wide range of services and facilities.

These services include a call centre accessible from any place in India at local phone rate and all one needs to do is dial 139 to know all information about trains and related services, IRCTC Managing Director P K Goel told reporters here on Tuesday. He said that talks were going on with petroleum companies and Department of Posts to use their networks for sale of e-tickets. While petrol pumps will be useful to urban travellers, post office will be a boon to the rural population, he added.

Equipped with on-board and off-board facilities, IRCTC will offer complete one-stop logistics support to travellers by way of the call centre, budget hotels, food courts and food plazas, e-booking not only of tickets but hotel accommodation and car rental service as well, Goel said. He said that at present IRCTC sold nearly 26,000 e-tickets per day and it wanted to take the figure to one lakh in months to come.

Also, in a move that will boost religious tourism, IRCTC proposes to start Jain and Buddhist travel circuits under Bharat Darshan and introduce more trains with Palace on Wheels tag which Goel says is the second biggest attraction among foreign travellers after Taj Mahal. He said that realising the monotony of taste of food served on trains, IRCTC would introduce cyclic manu as well as specific diet for ailing people on trains. It has already been introduced on Shatabdi Express and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Rajdhani Express.

In Gujarat, food courts/plaza were in the offing at Maninagar, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Bhuj, Hapa, Jamnagar, Bharuch, Nadiad and Vadodara among others, he said. IRCTC western zone chief regional manager R D Sharma was also present on the occasion.

Source : Expressindia.com

THE Government has extended the deadline of a customer incentive scheme under which it has floated various prizes for prospective customers who make purchases (minimum Rs 100) in any part of the State and obtain genuine bills on such purchases from traders/businessmen.

The scheme, which was in force from September till November 30, has been extended up to December 31, 2006. In a statement here on Tuesday, Minister of State for Finance Saurabh Patel said the Government had not only extended the deadline for the scheme, but also decided to provide special facility to customers to give details of their bills on a toll-free phone numbers: 1800-233-1100 and 079-40031100 between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on all days.

The customers, who have made purchases between September 1 and December 31, can drop their bills in drop boxes installed at VAT offices across the State, or send details of the bills by calling up on the toll-free phone numbers, he said.

Under the incentive scheme, the Government has fixed three prizes, with a Chevrolet car, 10 Honda bikes and 100 DVD players being the first, second and third prizes respectively. The scheme has been launched with a twin objective of ensuring that traders and businessmen maintain well-audited accounts by issuing bills on purchases, and also provide good quality goods to buyers. It is also aimed at ensuring that traders, who escape paying value-added tax (VAT) by not giving bills, are compelled to pay the tax.

Source : Expressindia.com