IRCTC shares jump after Railways Ministry gives nod to seven-year tenders

IRCTC share price NSE: Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) shares soared on Tuesday, November 21, after the Railways Ministry announced certain changes to its catering policy. The stock of state-run IRCTC, the only firm authorised by the Indian Railways to manage food services onboard trains and offer online railway ticket booking services, rose by as much as Rs 19.1, or 2.7 per cent, to Rs 720.3 apiece during the session on BSE, coming within Rs 38 of a 52-week high scaled in September. IRCTC shares ended at Rs 709, up 1.1 per cent on NSE.

According to a regulatory filing by the company post-market hours on Monday, the Railway Board has allowed IRCTC to go for long-term tenders for a period of seven years, subject to satisfactory performance in the initial five years, through clustering of trains. IRCTC has been advised by the ministry not to go ahead with the proposed long-term tenders of a total 10 years (5+5 years) for catering on trains.

The decision is aimed at ensuring the smooth implementation of the Yatri Seva Anubandh (YSA) policy, aimed at facilitating railway passengers with composite onboard services.

In an official circular, the rail ministry made additions to the first and third paragraphs of its Catering Policy 2017 to allow IRCTC to undertake seven-year tenders. In a separate development, IRCTC—a Miniratna central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways—said it had begun commercial production of Neer packaged drinking water on a PPP model in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, from November 17.

The production capacity of the plant is 72,000 litres per day, taking the company’s total capacity of Rail Neer water to 16.96 lakh litres per day, according to a filing.

IRCTC shares: Past performance

IRCTC shares have risen nearly 12 per cent so far this year, outperforming a nearly nine per cent gain in the headline Nifty50 index.

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