Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to launch Corporate Travel Services in Mumbai mid this month

The Western zone office of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is expected to launch Corporate Travel Services (CTS) under its ticketing division in Mumbai. Through this service it plans to cater to government sectors, corporations and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). This service which is expected to begin operations from mid this month will cater to services such as air tick­eting for domestic and international, MICE, hotel bookings and cab rental services in the initial stage, while Visa processing and Forex services will be added in the later.

Virender Singh, Group General Manager, West Zone, IRCTC said, "We are exceeding our set target of Rs 25 crore and have touched Rs 27 crore before end of financial year 2010-11. With the launch of our Corporate Travel Services department which aims to tap the MICE segment, we are expecting to touch Rs 45 crore mark by end of next financial year. We have ambitious plan for the next financial year and are concentrating to review our products and services to cater to different tourists groups. We are also in discussions to develop outbound travel packages, initially offering it for South East Asian markets and are in the process of finalising travel agents and hotels." It also this service operational in Delhi since August 2010 and plans to expand it to metros like Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata in the future.

IRCTC's West Zone which com­prises of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Mad­hya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (Agar, Jhansi and Mathura) and some part of Rajasthan, is working to start cab rental service and is looking for park­ing space near every major stations. Furthermore, this summer vacation the Corporation is looking to launch its school tour packages and is also in talks with various private and public schools and Kendriya Vidhyalayas in dif­ferent regions.

Revealing further information about their projects under the pipeline Singh said, "We have plans to introduce city tours such as Mumbai Darshan starting from September 2011. Our other services such as Bharat Darshan Train, Bharat Tirth Train and Buddhist Circuit Special Train has been re­ceived well by tourists. We are focus­ing on to promote Buddhist Circuit Special Train in the international mar­ket as we did in ITB Berlin 2011. We want to target tourists coming from Buddhist nations, and plan to start low budget Buddhist Circuit Special Train from Maharashtra next year."

Besides this, the Corporation will also setup Tourists Felicitation Centre at every Railway Headquarters. The Corporation also has plans to setup Tourists Felicitation Kiosk (TFK) at Pune and Nagpur to provide informa­tion about IRCTC's products and ser­vices. Presently, TFK's are operational at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Mumbai Central.

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