Pre-paid catering is now available in the Amrit Bharat Train. What is the 7% growth in catering attributable to? Will all Amritsar Bharat trains operate on that pre-paid model? How many trains are we currently servicing?
Whole universe today it is 1,318 trains and out of which around 15 Amrit Bharat trains we are serving. At the moment none of the Amrit Bharat trains we are running on pre-paid model but yes, the policy is out. Of course, this will give us a good gain but we are putting our system in place to take up this work.
The cluster-based contracts that were awarded on 5-plus-2 year basis - are all of them now getting into our P&L and we are accruing revenues at revised prices or are some yet to get into P&L?
There is a mix of cluster trains and SBD trains and temporary trains. We have given contract on cluster trains which have been already awarded where we got the tender through. And in those trains also, when the SBD trains tenure will expire, those trains will be converted into cluster trains. And there are certain trains which could not be pooled in the cluster, those trains we are running on a temporary basis. So, all three types of trains are still working.
Six-month revenue is Rs. 2,300 crores and debtors are at Rs. 1,548 crores, with debtor days above 100. Which segments contribute to this and what is the strategy to bring down debtor days?
Yes, mostly this is more than 80% with railways, which is our parent organization. It is basically that it's a continuous business going on every day, there is a new bill coming in and we are getting this money back also. So, we monitor it in a better way. We are trying to use this automation also where HST, because bill verification is a critical issue here. There are many trains which then run then TT of the train that verifies that how many numbers are actually taken meals and based on that, that verification we get the bill cleared. So, there, what happens at the moment all the all the major trains they have already they are using HST. So, we are in the process of linking this HST with our billing process. So, once this is done, of course, it will certainly help us in at least getting it verified quickly, and that much time we will be able to save. So, I am very hopeful to get it a better proportion.
On the payment aggregator business - what is the timeline after final approval from RBI and what will be the monetization strategy?
You see, we are already into this payment business. But of course, for our internal customer also only. And there we have a good sense and business sense of this particular business. And after six months, once we get the license, we are already in the process of putting our people right at the right place. We have already set up a subsidiary, which will be looking into the business alone. And we have our business plan, how we'll go about it. But I can tell you that our business alone, presently we are doing with our I-Pay only 20% of the total transaction GMP value, which we have a scope of around going up to 100%. So, something around 70,000 crore, whereas we are doing only 13,000 crore round business, this business already existing, we'll tap that. And we have business plan, which I don't want to discuss openly here. You know that is a very competitive field. And you will get to know once we do it.
Internet ticketing - with 90% online share already, how can we get higher growth given only 4% revenue growth this quarter?
We have two segments of business earnings revenue in this particular IT revenue segment. One is convenience fee, which depends on the percentage of reserve ticketing IRCTC is doing online. And the other is non-convenience fee. So, basically we have like improved our non-convenience fee by 13% and we are very hopeful to increase it further, So, that is how we will be able to manage and maintain our IT segment growth.
On Maharajas' Express - has the 20% odd growth momentum from Q1 sustained in Q2?
I am happy to tell you that even for the next year, we have got quite handsome booking. And this year, we'll be touching, I think, highest ever booking on Maharajas' Express.
On ABSS - station upgrades were impacting static catering units temporarily. Has that been resolved?
No, this is still continuing because the stations are getting commissioned slowly, but they have been taken up simultaneously. But it will give us a very good business in the years to come.
Looking beyond the quarter numbers, what is the bigger plan for IRCTC as digital platforms, tourism and catering evolves? How are you planning to build a lasting edge beyond just ticketing growth or catering contracts?
We are already making our road for two major activities. One is our payment aggregator business. We have already got in-principle approval from RBI on 4th of August and we have been given six months' time to submit our proposal application for acquiring license finally. So, that we will be able to submit by the end of January. And this business appears to me as one of the future leading business for IRCTC. The other big plan for IRCTC is, besides its normal business, is unified travel portal. Here we are aspiring to give a travel solution through a unified portal and by making this portal, we aspire to cross-sell the product to our existing customers and to the additional customers. So, here we will improve our UI/UX, will use AI/ML and Agentic AI and we will facilitate the passengers. We will make their experience very nice and that's our plan.
When cost rises, whether it is catering imports or IT investments or any compliance issues, how do you make sure the margins stay ahead without slowing down growth?
You see, in that scenario, you have only two ways to do these things. Firstly, you increase your price or you increase your volume. So, we believe in increasing our volume because in most of the sectors we are known for our delivery at affordable prices. Be it our tourism product, be it our catering products, all our products are designed to gain from the volume and not from the hiking the price. Like we are selling at Rs. 14 Rail Neer. We are selling like catering meals, full meals at Rs. 80. So, all these things are affordable prices and getting volume.
Can you share the number of tickets booked for the quarter and the convenience fee and also the share of UPI transactions?
Total tickets during this quarter booked is 13.55 crores and UPI share is 49.81% and convenience fee share is Rs. 252 crores.
The exceptional item announced this quarter related to Tejas Express - is it related to the reduction request for haulage charges for the rake? And is there anything more to happen here?
Yes, this exceptional item is because of the discount we got from Indian Railways on the haulage charges of Tejas Express. This is 5.8 crores.
The reduced haulage rate - is that same rate now applicable for the current fiscal onwards?
Yes, the same rate is continuing now.
Any colour on Tejas Express - is it making profit, and what are the utilization metrics?
Total Tejas revenue is Rs. 37.31 crores out of which Rs. 3.38 crores is our profit. And our occupancy of Ahmedabad is 87% and Lucknow is 56%.
On Rail Neer - what new capacity is expected to come live in next 12 months?
First of all our Bilaspur plant which is not working at the moment because of some reasons of state government, so now the issue is resolved and we will be very soon starting the Bilaspur plant. So, that will add capacity of 72,000 bottles per day. Besides, we are in the process of enhancing the capacity of our Danapur and Ambernath plant from 1 lakh bottles to 3 lakh bottles and we are also hoping to install four more plants across India.
Is it safer to assume the brownfield capacity can come in next 12 months but the four more plants might come in the next fiscal?
Yes.
On the tourism business - is there any other thing you are working on, or any smaller initiative that has taken up scale within the tourism sub segments?
I am happy to inform you that we have started taking up MICE event. And recently we have done it for Indo-ASEAN countries Mart, where IRCTC in Bangkok for the first time organized the Mart infrastructure. We participated in PATA, and we have been given by MEA this work, not to Ministry of Tourism.
In the MICE event, how are you trying to identify the areas which you will participate and areas which you may not?
You see, general MICE everybody can do, but now we have planned to make a cluster kind of thing where we will divide all the ministries and the state government in five clusters. And it will be backed by good partners, PPP partners, and we will try to capture this business from government and semi-government organizations including the PSUs.
On MICE profitability - will it be a fixed top-up margin on a cost plus basis or a function of revenue streams?
You see, it will be what we have thought of as a minimum margin of 8% will keep. And as I told earlier that we work on an affordable model, so whatever benefit we can derive because of our capacity or our market presence will certainly give benefit to the organization so that we get more and more business, of course with the 8% return.
On Bharat Gaurav Train - you mentioned adding one more rake. Has that been deployed? What is the booking trend for Q3-Q4 and how many departures have been completed in H1?
We have already got nine coaches. And presently, we have deployed these coaches in our regular trains, regular Bharat Gaurav trains. And we are doing good business of Bharat Gaurav train. You see, this year, our tourism, this quarter, our tourism revenue has grown by 21%. And contribution of Bharat Gaurav train is quite a lot.
On the IRCTC co-branded UPI credit card with SBI - any update?
So, that business is continuing. And we are still with them. And besides that, SBI, we have collaborated with Ratnakar Bank also, RBL also.
What is the AC and non-AC ticketing mix for Q2?
I am just trying to tell you about the figures also. Loyalty program we have gained 15.35 crores, there is a jump of 26.65%. What is your next question please? AC is 6.75 crores out of 13.55 crores. Non-AC is 6.8 crores.