Budget hotels from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. will set up 20 'Rail Ratna' brand budget hotels in the southern states and major hoteliers have already been awarded sites at several places for the venture, IRCTC Southern Region Manager K P Damodaran said today. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Damodaran said sites had already been awarded for the hotels at Ooty, Kanniyakumari, Madurai and Rameshwaram. Land would be handed over at Chennai Central, Trivandrum Central, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Calicut, Coimbatore and Mangalore for more hotles, he said. Mr Damodaran said that since taking over the catering in Southern Railway in November, 2005, the IRCTC had set up 13 modern food plazas at major stations including Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Chennai and Bangalore. Ten more food courts were being planned, including at Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Erode and Tirunelvelli. To provide hygienic and wholesome food to railway passengers and visitors to the stations, major base kitchens would be set up at Trivandrum, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Erode, Madurai and Chennai, he said.