The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Budget hotel coming up in Madurai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 05, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Budget hotel coming up in Madurai

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 4. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will set up a budget hotel in Madurai with private participation at a cost of Rs. 5 crores.

The `Yatri Nivas' will have 60 rooms catering for middle and lower middle class tourists. A piece of land near the Madurai goods yard has been identified.

This will be the Corporation's first budget hotel in Tamil Nadu and third in the country, the other two having come up in Puri and Ranchi.

Madurai has been selected, as it is centrally located in the State, said the Minister of State for Railways, R. Velu, talking to newsmen here today.

e-ticketing

As a pilot project, the Corporation would soon introduce e-ticketing facility for travel by the New Delhi-Chandigarh-Kalka Shatabdi Express. Passengers could take a printout of the ticket, logging on the Corporation site and board the train after producing personal identity cards such as passport or driving licence. The printout would be incorporated in the reservation list. Tickets could be booked until the reservation chart was printed.

If there was good response, the e-ticketing would be extended to other prestigious trains.

The Minister said there was good demand for Internet booking. On an average about 5,000 tickets were being issued a day. At present a minimum of two days was required for booking through the Internet as tickets were being printed in Delhi and dispatched to passengers. To reduce the time, the Corporation was planning to set up Internet ticket printing centres in Chennai for the southern States.

On `bullet trains,' the Minister said the Rail India Technical Economic Services, which along with two Japanese agencies was conducting a study, would submit a report to the Ministry. The Government would conduct a technical feasibility study on the basis of the report and take a decision.

The Ministry identified the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector for introduction of a `bullet train' which would run at 250-300 kmph.

Food plazas

Earlier, Mr. Velu inaugurated a food plaza at the Beach station here. He said two more plazas would be opened, in Coimbatore and Chennai Park, before March next.

The Corporation was planning to open a similar food outlet at Tambaram also.

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