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Chennai , Sept 30

WANT to take your employees on a holiday to Goa? Charter an entire train. The Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Ltd, a public sector undertaking under the Railway Ministry, is wooing corporates to charter special trains from Railways and take employees to various tourist destinations in the country.

In the south zone, for the first time, the IRCTC has chartered a train to ECC Recreation Club to Goa and back, Mr V. Sriram, Group General Manager, Southern Zone, IRCTC, told newspersons here. The club consist employees of ECC Construction Division of L&T Ltd.

According to Mr Sriram, the nine sleeper class coaches and two-SLRs would leave Chennai Central on October 1 afternoon and reach Vasco on October 2 morning, with stoppages at Renigunta, Tadipatri, Guntakal and Madgaon. In the return direction on October 4, the train would stop at Madgaon and Cuddapah. The charter service would cost about Rs 9 lakh including charges for the train ticket, surcharge and terminal charges. Companies can either opt for point-to-point service or a circular route visiting various places, he said.

The Indian Railways has been providing chartered trains for religious groups. A Cognizant Technology Solutions official said a couple of years ago the company chartered an entire train from Indian Railways and took employees to Pondicherry.

For the first time, IRCTC has taken steps to promote the tourist train concept with corporates. "Tourist trains is a new segment and we hope to get good response from large firms," said Mr Sriram.

According to Mr R. Balasubramaniam, Vice President, ECC Recreation Club and Vice President and Head (southern zone) L&T-ECC Division, Chennai, in a collaborative effort with IRCTC, about 700 family members, comprising staff-members (members of the club) and their kith and kin would leave for Goa. Interaction between family members, especially when they travel together and stay together in picnic, nurtures ``family bond" and reinforces belonging to one large family - that of "L&T-ECC", he said.

On Internet ticketing through the IRCTC Web site, Mr Sriram said the average transaction per day was 2,500 tickets. The highest ever of 3,382 tickets on September 23 netted Rs 45 lakh, being the highest ever daily collection on any e-commerce site in India. "The site is the fastest growing e-commerce site in Asia-Pacific with over 2,000 per cent growth rate over just a year," he said.

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