Railways forbid sale of private water bottles
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Canteen and food kiosk owners have been banned from selling private companies water bottles. If any stall is found guilty they will be either fined or blacklisted.
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By Dipika Datta Pillay
BANGALORE (Jan. 12)—A fortnight ago, Indian railways banned the sale of packaged drinking water from private companies in Hubli, in an attempt to promote their in-house brand of water Rail Neer and increase their revenue.
The rule was implemented all over north and east India railway premises two years ago. After the inauguration of railway’s new water-processing plant in Palur, near Chennai in September 2011, they are slowly capturing the southern region.
Vijay Kumar, manager of the Palur plant said since logistics have to worked before sending water supplies, ICRTC has not been able to cover the entire south. Only stations till Vijaywada, Renigunta, Mangalore, Bangalore, Chennai, Palakad, Madurai, and now Hubli, have been captured.
Palur is the third and latest plant set up by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.
“The purpose of the Palur plant is to supply safe drinking water to trains and stations especially in Chennai and Bangalore,” Kumar said. “Our main aim is to provide clean drinking water and not make profit.
“Profit will be calculated after three years. So far we are not running in loss,” he said.
Private companies take a hit
“Yes, they stopped our supply of water in Railways canteens from the past two months. We have suffered a loss of six lakhs [Rs. 600,000],” said Praveen, area sales manager of Bisleri, Bangalore.
Stall owners in the stations prefer to sell water bottles of other brands as they get more profit on them, usually Rs. 5 to Rs. 8 per bottle.
The Railways Ministry has circulated a rule that shopkeepers and stall owners at railway stations found selling other brands of water will be fined and their stock seized.
Presently a liter of Rail Neer costs Rs. 12 to the Rs. 15 of Bisleri, Kinley, Bailey or Aquafina.
“We have been ordered to sell only Rail Neer. They will impose a fine if we sell other water bottles,” says Devaraj, server at Jalaahar canteen, Bangalore city station.
Devraj adds that every stall in the station sells 50-60 bottles of Rail Neer every day.
A total of 65 main railway stations from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu, Punjab, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Jammu, Assam, Odhisa and Uttarkhand have already switched to Rail Neer.
The idea of opening their own water plant was first conceived by former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar (current chief minister of Bihar). He was the one to pass the order of railways supplying their own water.
Rail Neer in open market
In February 2011 after maintaining good sales, the IRCTC ventured its product in the open market of Bihar.
“The response is good, that’s why we are opening more plants,” said G. Rajagopalan, finance personal assistant at Bangalore Railway Division.
To meet the demand of trains originating from Mumbai area stations, a fourth plant has been planned at Ambernath, Maharastra, which is supposed to be operational in fiscal 2012-13, thus helping railways venture in western regions of India.
“The Rail Neer water is good; it’s the same as other popular brands. There is no difference in taste,” said Satya Shourie, a website professional in Bangalore.
Kamala, a traveler, agreed, saying: “The water is of fine quality. I like it.”
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