Private firm operating only food plaza at Amritsar railway station pulls out of contract

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, June 16

A Delhi-based private company with 50 years of experience in tourism, hospitality and operating private trains pulled out of the annual contract with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for running a food plaza at the Amritsar railway station.

It brought down the curtain on the only upscale eating joint spread across 2,250 square feet area (250 square yards) at the railway station. An multi-cuisine food joint failed to attract customers as it faced cut-throat competition from vendors serving food at low rates at the railway station.

Moreover, the railway station is yet to realise the pre-Covid era footfall of passengers while frequent rail blockades by agitating farmer unions for the past few years severely curtailed the business for days altogether in a year. Before the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, over 130 trains used to arrive and depart from the Amritsar railway station. Besides, the railway station recorded a footfall of over 30,000 passengers every day.

High rent cost of food plaza, frequent protests curtailing working days and the losses incurred during the Covid-19 period were some of the reasons compelling the company to pull out of the business. The company is running ready to eat outlets at several railway stations across the country.

It is learnt that a day’s rent of the food plaza at the Amritsar railway station was around Rs 14,700, including 18 per cent GST. The total annual licence fee of the food plaza is around Rs 4.41 lakh. In addition, the company had to foot wages of employees, allied costs and high power tariff. All input costs put together made the business of serving delectable food items a highly pricey affair.

Railway officials said as Amritsar was a border city, most trains either originate or terminate their journey here. They said passengers preferred home cooked food.

After a written request by the company to exit the food plaza at the Amritsar railway station, Regional Manager, IRCTC, Regional Office, Chandigarh, recommended forfeiture of the firm’s security deposit of Rs 15 lakh and the licence fee. As per the IRCTC communication dated April 16, the company was also advised to deposit the penalty amount of

Rs 27,71,279 as on February 14. The company was advised to clear all the dues of the Amritsar railway station food plaza at the earliest.

Earlier, a Mumbai-based catering company had withdrawn from the Amritsar food plaza in 2015 after renting it at Rs 3 lakh per month in July 2014. At that time, the firm had found the eatery commercially non-viable.