Indian Railways may invest around Rs 1,000 crore to more than double its capacity to produce drinking water under the Rail Neer brand, according to a report by The Economic Times.
The Rail Neer brand is owned and managed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of Indian Railways. At the moment, IRCTC produces around 6 lakh litres of the branded bottled water a day across its seven bottling plants.
Indian Railways is now planning to build 11 more plants across the country on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, the report stated, citing a senior railway ministry official. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
"With these new plants, we will be able to fulfil about 85 percent of the current demand of 16 lakh litres a day," the official told the newspaper. "The annual demand for bottled water in railway premises across the country is around Rs 600 crore and growing more than 10 percent per annum."
The new plants will reportedly be built in Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Bhusawal, Guwahati, Jabalpur, Kota, Nangal, Ranchi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. The land required for them will be provided by Railways, either on its own or through a memorandum of understanding with the respective state government.
The tenders for the proposed plants will be awarded by the end of this year, the official reportedly said.
The Rail Neer brand has a captive market of more than 7,000 railway stations across the country and is available on more than 1,000 trains. In FY18, it contributed around Rs 170 crore or 11 percent of IRCTC’s revenue.
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