The executive lounge at Patna Junction will now be built outside platform number one and not at platform number 10 to ensure enhanced business and better profitability.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) took the decision after investors refused to take up the project citing less revenue on platform number 10 at the Karbighaiya end of the junction.
The move assumes significance as the plan had failed to evoke interest among investors twice.
A senior official of IRCTC, Patna, said: “This project has faced many hurdles and the investors were not showing interest in it. So we thought of bringing some changes — first, the investors had problem with the location and second, they were not so keen in investing more than Rs 1 crore with no assurance of good returns.”
A fresh tender for the executive lounge was floated on October 9 after which the pre-bid was scheduled for November 11. However, before taking part in the pre-bid meet, the investors again objected to the location and demanded that the time period of five years to collect users’ charges be extended to nine years.
“We have now solved the problem of investors and shifted the location outside platform number one of Patna Junction to the left-hand side of the cycle stand. Apart from it, IRCTC would provide help up to Rs 50 lakh. So far, 10 investors have evinced interest,” said the officials.
The Karbighaiya end of Patna Junction is not as developed as the front entrance. Besides, investors sought the change because most express trains, including Rajdhani, depart from platform number one, whereas platform number 10 only receives passenger and short-distance trains.
To give investors the feel of the prospective lounge, the pre-bid meeting has been called at India’s first executive lounge located opposite platform number 16 on the Ajmeri gate side in New Delhi.
The Delhi lounge can accommodate about 125 passengers at a given time providing them a host of facilities round-the-clock for a fee of Rs 300 for a three-hour stay: the Internet, wash and change, buffet breakfast, meal, snacks and dinner, all of which are factored in the fee.
The Patna project would have an 80-seat lounge offering an array of state-of-the-art facilities executed by IRCTC and Indian Railways on a public-private partnership mode.
“Earlier, it was planned to be a 100-seat lounge across 3,500sqft but now it would be constructed across 3,000sqft at a budget of Rs 1.5 crore as against the earlier one of Rs 2 crore,” said the official.
Passengers would be offered facilities on a par with those at airport lounges — LED, music system, sofa-cum-bed, phone and Wi-Fi-enabled computer/laptop. Once complete, passengers in transit could freshen up, sip tea, coffee and cold drinks and even grab a quick bite.
Another room providing meet-and-greet service could be used for small conferences with PowerPoint presentation facility.
The IRCTC official said it would take another two months to complete paperwork after the pre-bid meeting and by January 2015, the construction would begin.
