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Move to Privatise Railway Retiring Rooms

By Sumit Kumar, Section News
Posted on Sat Dec 23, 2006 at 12:19:54 AM EST

After setting up Yatri Niwas and food kiosks at stations, it is now the turn of retiring rooms getting a facelift. Eastern Railway has decided to hand over the retiring rooms and dormitories at 27 locations to private parties under a renovate/rehabilitate, operate and transfer (ROT) scheme.

ER has nine retiring rooms in Howrah, six in Sealdah, seven in Asansol and five in Malda divisions. Over the years, the condition of these rooms (some stations also have dormitories) have deteriorated due to lack of proper maintenance.

"Earlier, the number of people using retiring rooms were few. Nowadays, more passengers want to book retiring rooms in advance. Most of them are upper-class passengers who are ready to pay more if proper facilities are available. It was difficult for the railways to provide necessary facilities in the retiring rooms as we do not have any expertise in the hospitality industry. It was then decided to leave the job to private organisations which have experience in running hotels and guest houses. However, their action plan will be closely monitored," a senior officer said.

Under the public-private partnership scheme, the initial period of contract will be 15 years. Thereafter, all assets (movable and immovable) will be transferred back to the railways at zero value, to be leased out again. Recently, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corpo ration Ltd (IRCTC), invited bids for Ya tri Niwas across the country. Benfish an undertaking of the West Bengal fish eries department has expressed its in terest in running the Yatri Niwas at the Howrah station. In case of retiring rooms, the bidders must have a mini mum turnover of Rs 50 lakh per annum from their hotel business in the last three years. The company must also register a net profit in at least two of the three previous years. They may also hike the rates. However, the railways will ensure that the rates fixed are not exorbitant.

"A lot of capital expenditure is re quired to run a retiring room properly The furnishings and decor has to be com pletely changed after a few months. The bathrooms will also have to renovated".

(Source-Times Of India,23/12/06)

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