The Hindu Business Line : IRCTC invites bids to run vending kiosks

Running method
It has invited bids from all major retail and beverage companies and fixed a minimum licence fee per annum per kiosk.
IRCTC has grouped several kiosks into clusters.

New Delhi , May 12

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has kicked off the bidding process for managing over 340 automatic vending kiosks at several stations in the first phase.

It has invited bids from all major retail and beverage companies having automatic vending machine operations, which are members of an open panel. The panel includes Amul, Nestle, HLL, Café Coffee Day, Tata Tea, Rasna, Coca Cola, Pepsi and Dabur.

For bidding, the Indian Railways' subsidiary has fixed a minimum licence fee per annum per automatic vending kiosk, the IRCTC Director (Tourism and Marketing), Mr Rakesh Saksena, said. The licence fee varies depending on the size and location of the kiosk. It could be Rs 1.5 lakh or even Rs 4.5 lakh, he said.

Cluster approach

Moreover, IRCTC has grouped several kiosks, which are present in one or various closely located railway stations, into clusters. For example, there are two clusters of several kiosks located at different points in Bangalore station. Also, while one cluster consists of 19 stalls spread over Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur and Tundla stations; another includes kiosks at Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Tambaram, Pallavaram, Nungambakkam, Tiruvallur and Arakkonam. Other locations for which biddings are invited include Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Visakhapatnam, Gaya, Kharagpur, Tata, Asansol and Sealdah.

Interested operators are required to competitively bid for running all the vending kiosks in a cluster. The highest bidder would be allowed to run the kiosks in a cluster for three years. The cluster approach was adopted to ensure that operators get a critical mass of consumers at a station or in nearby stations so that the supply chain management becomes feasible and easier, said Mr Saksena.

Moreover, within a station, operators can manage their supplies across different kiosks depending on varying consumption levels.

Operators can sell ready-to-eat snacks, packaged food items and beverages, but are not permitted to cook within the kiosks. They are required to offer some low priced snacks such as samosas, sandwiches, biscuits and chips. The packed items cannot be sold above maximum retail price.

Moreover, they are required to offer 150 ml of tea for Rs 4 and an equal amount of coffee for Rs 5. The price of ready-to-eat snacks has to be pre-approved by IRCTC.

"Though the market would take care of the prices, but we would ensure that pricing of products at stations are not higher than what companies charge in the outlets present outside the stations in the region," he said.