How to think from FY '27 and '28 perspective on catering? In 1Q and 2Q growth was weaker; this quarter sharp jump from new trains. How many new trains are expected in '27 and '28?
You must have seen the budget announcement and discussion in parliament — it is very categorically told by rail ministry that they are going to introduce 260 Vande Bharat train sets. These trains are already in the pipeline, and that is certainly going to add good business for IRCTC catering.
On the payment aggregator license — received in-principle approval last quarter and said by January end you'd submit final applications. Update on timelines and strategic view?
Our document submission date has been extended by RBI till August this year. And we have already engaged our technology service provider. So most likely we'll be submitting the documents at the earliest.
On the Amrit Bharat station scheme — earlier static catering units were being impacted by these station upgrades. Has that normalized in Q3? Are we seeing some revenue flow from these upgraded stations yet?
Earlier, we were having our projects at 543 stations. It has now increased to 563.
On labor code impact — you mentioned in footnotes you're still assessing, and peers have taken provisions. Could you give a broad range of potential liabilities in Q4?
I don't see there is any major impact because we are still examining the impact in detail. There are 2 things which may come for us — earlier gratuity that used to be given in 5 years has been reduced to 1 year, and health checkup. For our regular employees we have no problem because we will see to that. Whatever the impact will be adding to our cost, but that we will compensate by increasing the volume and revenue of the business.
Tourism did really well — how much of this seasonality would we be able to carry over to Q4 for Maharaja Express and Bharat Gaurav?
All of our segments have shown a very good increase and we are targeting to achieve 15% sustainable growth this year.
You have a huge database — are there any anonymized data insights or products created for third parties? Or is it strictly for personnel IRCTC use due to privacy?
We have to see the DPDP compliances. We have planned to introduce our unified portal and taking use of data available with us to cross-sell our products, but this will be in compliance to DPDP guidelines.
On the OTA platform — are you aggressively looking to compete with private OTAs or non-rail inventories like hotels and flights this year? Or will focus primarily be cross-selling to existing rail passengers?
Our forte is rail passengers. But at the moment, our rail passengers are utilizing travel-related services from other OTA sites and from unorganized sector. Even if we are able to capture some of the value-added services to our customers, this is a very good business proposition for us. Around 1,600,000 tickets we are booking every day. Our total other transactions are only 1,0000 a day which includes hotels, airlines, tour packages and all. So if we put a unified portal, then we will be able to offer our services at a single platform to our passenger. Whatever packages we are working on, we have got very good feedback from customers.
So even if we double capacity, we can still accommodate the demand?
Yes. That's why management is going to add capacity, add new plants. We are also thinking — not yet done anything but thinking — to tie up with certain other brands. Discussion is going on but not fructified anything at the moment.
On ticketing — 89% of tickets are already booked online. What are the key growth drivers going forward?
As I told earlier, we are focusing more on non-convenience fees. In fact, this quarter it has increased by 26%. So that's the main thing we are looking at going forward.
Are we planning to add any new route for Tejas Express?
No, no, not yet.
On catering — 19% growth this quarter. What drove it? Also, in the opening commentary you mentioned margins were impacted due to the Vande Bharat project — can you talk about that as well?
Revenue from Vande Bharat train this time, the billing has increased by INR70 crores and so be the license fee. The main reason for catering business revenue enhancement is introduction of additional 40 trains during the period. On margin — when we log the revenue for the Vande Bharat billing, it doesn't give us that much license fee. And additionally, 5% GST we have to pay out of that. So that is the main reason of the margin not very high.
Bookkeeping — what was the number of tickets booked in this quarter, share of UPI transactions, and breakdown between convenience and non-convenience revenue?
Our convenience revenue is INR 251 crores and non-convenience revenue is INR150 crores during this quarter. The average daily ticket booking in lakhs is around INR14.64 lakh per day as against INR 13.59 lakhs last year December '24. And the UPI share has increased from 46.86% last year to 50.18%.
On Rail Neer — 4 greenfield projects announced for FY '27. Timelines and capacity expansion?
First of all, we are enhancing the capacity of our existing plant at Danapur and Ambernath — we are doubling its capacity. In addition, our Board has already sanctioned for installation of 4 new plants at Mysore, Prayagraj, Bhagalpur and Ranchi. So we'll be adding around 25% to 30% capacity in 1.5 years.
Could you confirm the convenience and non-convenience numbers and daily ticket booking? I missed those.
Convenience fee in the IT earnings is INR251 crores and non-convenience fee realization is INR150 crores.
On Rail Neer — average bottles sold per day in Q3? How close are we to the 2 million bottles per day capacity target?
The average is 12.68 lakhs bottle.
Confirming UPI transaction share was 50.18%?
Yes.
With Swiggy / Zomato integrations and catering — do you see this as cannibalization of onboard entry card sales? Or is it purely incremental?
There is no dearth of market for both kinds of things. As I showed you the figure of this quarter, both our normal catering also increased and our e-catering also increased by, say, 25%. The difference is — in basic catering, we serve the daal chawal khaana type of thing. But in catering, you can add to what you eat. So both the things are complementing each other, and I don't see any downside anywhere in both the segments. It should be win-win situation.
On Vande Bharat — as VB takes larger share of catering mix, how does the unit economics differ vs standard / Mail Express trains? Is the prepaid nature working better for you?
There are 2 kinds of trains — one is prepaid, another is postpaid. Vande Bharat trains are prepaid trains where we know the assumed number prior to departure of the train. So we get the assessment of volume and we accordingly get a higher revenue share. Whereas in postpaid trains, we are not sure of the volume. Passengers may or may not ask for the meals, so that does not give us that much confidence. So increase in Vande Bharat trains is more good — rather better — for our company.
On the 40-odd new trains and INR70-odd crores number — is the increase on a Y-o-Y basis and not Q-o-Q?
All 40 trains are not Vande Bharat. There are certain Mail Express trains as well. Only 19 trains are Vande Bharat out of this. This is year-on-year basis.
On the 260 train number — this would come over a period of years and not in the current fiscal alone?
Yes, yes. That I told when they were asking about 2027, 28 estimates.
On Rail Neer — what percentage of total railway demand is currently being served? Untapped opportunity as more plants come?
Around 50% and 60%, depending upon season is being served.
On tourism — significant growth. Can you give breakup in terms of revenue mix? Maharaja, Tejas, Bharat Gaurav, State Tirth?
Maharaja revenue grew by 39%. In absolute term, it is INR53.14 crores. Our State Tirth and Bharat Gaurav train revenue grew by 51%, and it's INR 118.91 crores. Our air ticketing business also grew by 41%, the figure is INR6.7 crores. Our budget hotel and Rail Yatri Niwas business grew by 38%, in absolute terms INR 5.3 crores. And other packages announced by 19%, which is INR55.26 crores.
What was Tejas revenue?
Tejas revenue is INR50 crores.
From a tourism point of view — how does the pipeline look? Will Q4 see moderation given lower seasonality? Are there enough routes for Bharat Gaurav and State Tirth to continue momentum?
Overall this year we'll be able to achieve 15%. I don't see any dip — Maharaja Express is also running in Q4 and giving us the highest ever revenue. Our State Tirth and Bharat Gaurav trains are also — in fact we have added 1 train, Bharat Gaurav train. So that will add to our revenue.
On ticketing — payment business will take some time before commercializing. In the interim, what are the drivers for this segment to grow beyond train network expansion?
Payment Gateway will be announcing in arithmetical mode only, not in geometric progression until we get a license. We are more focusing on non-convenience fee revenue, which has grew by 26% this quarter. So we'll focus more on non-conveniency fee.
Any specific part of non-convenience revenue that has seen growth this quarter?
All segments have grew — in our marketing and ad revenue it is INR24.78 crores as against INR13.29 crores in December '24. Then business also grew by INR62.47 crores as against INR 52.53 crores. Similarly, our loyalty program has given INR21.88 crores as against INR15.35 crores. So all our segments has shown a good increase.
Current occupancy of Tejas Express train?
Lucknow percentage is 69% and Ahmedabad is 109%.