The Hindu Business Line : IRCTC to invite tenders soon for call centre

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will soon invite consortium-based tenders to set up and operate railways' call centres. Each bidding consortium should consist of a telecom operator, BPO firm and systems integrator, besides an optional financial firm partner.

The call centre would have to provide basic train enquiry services at the cost of a local call for passengers calling from anywhere in the country.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

On the eligibility criteria, IRCTC has said that the telecom operator should have presence in all circles in the country. For the business process outsourcing (BPO) and systems integrators, it plans to have a mix of experience and turnover criteria.

"The consortium would have to bid on the basis of the share of revenue that they would shell out to Railways for each incoming call to the call centre," Dr P.K. Goel, Managing Director, IRCTC, told Business Line.

The revenue model for the consortium would be driven by termination charges that would accrue to the telecom operator in whose network the call centre number would reside.

Moreover, several calls would originate from the telecom operator. "Every day, about 14-15 lakh calls are made to the Railway enquiry number. Thus, we are talking about substantial earnings accruing to the telecom operator who owns the train enquiry number," said Dr Goel.

Premium services

Moreover, the call centre would be allowed to offer premium services such as SMS alerts to passengers and booking tickets, for which they can charge relatively higher.

"The bids would also have to indicate the extent of revenue they agree to share with the Railways for premium charges," he said. In due course, the call centre can also provide other premium services such as booking hotels and taxi services.

On the expenditure side, bidding parties can seek a subsidy for the expenses on hardware, maintenance and operations — provided they feel revenues from operations would not be enough to cover costs.

Railways had basically wanted `revenue neutral' call centre operation - wherein it did not have to invest anything extra. "Apart from the highest revenue share offered by any party, we would also take into account the party with lowest expenses — in case they want us to cover the expenses," Dr Goel said, adding that the bids would be invited very soon. The time for which bidders can run the call centre is yet to be firmed up — though it may be 10 years.

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