NEW DELHI: Indian Railways would soon announce a Rs 10 lakh-crore high-speed train corridors construction plan to connect all major cities in the country, covering almost 10,000 kilometres, along the lines of the government’s Bharatmala highways development programme.

“The plan would be announced in April,” a top rail ministry official said. “We'll unveil the routes that would be connected along with the funding mechanism,” the person told ET.

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: The government's push towards a digital economy has been a sore point for one of its own and among the country's biggest ecommerce firms, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

The government's decision in November 2016 to withdraw service charge on etickets, to promote digital payments, cost IRCTC a 26% drop in internet ticketing revenue to Rs 466.05 crore in financial year 2016-17.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Coal India (CIL) are joining hands for a project to use the excess groundwater from the latter’s mines to produce purified packaged water being sold under IRCTC’s popular Rail Neer brand. A site has been identified at Argada near Ranchi in the coal-rich state of Jharkhand to set up a bottling plant of IRCTC. “Water will be supplied from the adjoining coal mines to this plant for purification.

The ED on Friday said it had attached a three-acre plot worth Rs 45 crore in the Bihar capital in connection with its money-laundering probe in the IRCTC hotel allotment scam case involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family.

Agency sources said the land is allegedly in the name of the family members of Lalu Prasad and a mall was supposed to be constructed there. The market value of the plot is Rs 45 crore, they said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued a notice to former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, asking them to appear on November 20 and November 24 respectively, in connection with the IRCTC hotel scam.

Earlier on November 13, the ED questioned the former Bihar deputy chief minister in connection with the scam.

The Indian Railways just can't seem to catch a break, be it unfortunate accidents that have cost lives or contaminated and poor quality food being served to passengers.

Coming on the heels of the food poisoning incident aboard the Tejas Express, the UT consumer forum has imposed a penalty of Rs 30,000 on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) in a case related to serving a Kalka-New Delhi Shatabdi Express passenger his meal in an unhygienic manner, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the passenger had alleged that the meal was contaminated with dead insects.

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi on Monday skipped the ED summons for the third time in connection with alleged irregularities in a 2006 IRCTC hotels maintenance contract case.

The Enforcement Directorate on October 11, had summoned Rabri Devi after she failed to appear before it last Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday sought 15 days from the CBI to appear for questioning in a case related to alleged corruption in giving the contract for running two IRCTC hotels to a private firm in 2006, sources said.

Tejashwi, who was summoned to appear today, sent his counsel who submitted the request seeking time to appear before the investigation team, sources in the agency said.

A squabble between banks and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) over fees has resulted in the latter disallowing a number of lenders from using its payment gateway for debit cards. Bankers FE spoke to explained that IRCTC had stopped them from operating on the website because they were unwilling to share a portion of the convenience fees earned on customer transactions. An email sent to IRCTC requesting a comment remained unanswered. The Indian Railways subsidiary’s website is among the most busy portals in the country.

Giving relief to government-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ministry of finance has decided to reimburse the loss of the Railways' subsidiary due to the waiver of service charge for online booking of train tickets.

This service charge was exempted from November 23, 2016, to boost digital transactions. Before demonetisation, IRCTC used to charge Rs 40 a ticket for bookings in air-conditioned classes and Rs 20 per ticket in the sleeper class. The finance ministry is likely to reimburse about Rs 500 crore to IRCTC annually.

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