IRCTC to set up 4 more Rail Neer plants

Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has decided to augment the manufacture and supply of packaged drinking water Rail Neer to cater to the growing demand of clean and hygienic drinking water in trains. Besides, the existing three Rail Neer plants, IRCTC is planning four more such plants across the country. While one each is coming up in Mumbai and Delhi, two plants each are being planned for Hyderabad and Nagpur. "The Rail Neer plant is being set up at Ambernath in Mumbai. The Ambernath plant will have installed capacity of two lakh bottles per day and likely to be commissioned in 2013-14. This plant will meet requirement in Western part of the country," said a senior IRCTC official. IRCTC, a subsidiary under Railway Ministry, is currently manufacturing Rail Neer at three locations - Nangloi (Delhi), Danapur (Bihar) and Palur (near Chennai) with cumulative production capacity of 3.80 lakh bottles (1 litre capacity) per day. IRCTC is looking to set up one more plant in Delhi NCR for meeting requirement in non railway market. The plant will have manufacturing facility for 500/250 ml bottles, 20 litre Jars and regular one litre bottle. "As per our future plan, we are planning to form a joint venture firm, which will set up two plants at Nagpur and Hyderabad on PPP basis," he said. All the three Rail Neer plants of IRCTC are based on the state-of-the art eight stage water purification technologies. The plants have fully automatic bottle blowing, filling and packing line, where there is no human touch with the water or the bottle till the bottle is sealed. According to IRCTC, demand for Rail Neer at railway stations has increased steadily and there is a huge gap between the existing production capacity of the plants and the demand. To bridge the gap there is an immediate need for setting up more plants across the country so as to strengthen the supply chain and logistics of Rail Neer supply at railway stations and trains in sixteen zones.