Amidst the continuing tussle between RailYatri and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) related to unauthorized price tag booking, the Indian railway catering arm has locked horns with RailYatri and TravelKhana over online meals ordering offerings. Citing unknown resources, a Business Standard document said that IRCTC had approached lower courts in Karkarduma and Rohini alleging that the online meals ordering services furnished by using these corporations are illegal.
This revelation comes after it turned into reported that RailYatri had carried out for IRCTC license to continue its train price tag reserving services. On April 05, the Delhi High Court had dominated that RailYatri’s teach ticket reserving service is unauthorized. In 2017, IRCTC had filed a criticism alleging that the company changed into presenting illegal bookings and meals on trains. IRCTC accused the business enterprise of violating the policies as the startup isn’t registered with IRCTC as a principal provider (PSP) or a retail provider issuer (RSP) SP.
The Delhi High Court stated that railyard. It turned into neither a PSP nor an RSP and has no privity of agreement with IRCTC. Following this, IRCTC now appears to question both RailYatri and Delhi-primarily based TravelKhana for imparting illegal meal services. According to the IRCTC framework, no enterprise can offer meals to train guests unless appointed as an aggregator through IRCTC.
The count associated with meal offerings is currently sub-judice for the ultimate 18-20 months, and therefore, it’ll be inappropriate to remark particularly in this. We clarified our commitment to paintings inside the IRCTC framework, and we’ve already advanced in that path. RailYatri is a law-abiding corporation and is dedicated to developing the latest era to improve the inter-city travel experience in India. All our modern-day and past sports are in the framework of e-trade guidelines defined by using the ministry of trade,” Swapnil Tripathi, CBO at Railyatri informed Inc42.
Apart from RailYatri, food tech startup TravelKhana is also underneath the scrutiny. The case comes when the startup is already facing trouble in its business over angel tax-related concerns. In February, it was reported that TravelKhana is going through an existential danger because of an angel tax order. On February five, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had now not best seized all of the startup’s money — amounting to INR 33 Lakh — but also frozen its financial institution money owed.
At that time, whilst talking with Inc42, Siddarth Pai, founding partner of 3One4 Capital, a member of the working committee to clear up angel tax trouble, said that the angel tax crackdown had left TravelKhana without money. The issue associated with meal delivery comes when speculations are rife that IRCTC is planning to sign up for fingers with food transport groups, including UberEats, Zomato, Foodpanda, and Swiggy, offer meals in trains.
Meanwhile, in line with reviews, the railway company has partnered with online food shipping organizations TRAPIGO and Shree Mahalakshmi Swayam Sahayata Bachat Ghat (Ratnagiri) nearby or neighborhood cuisines to teach passengers. The customers can region the orders via IRCTC’s e-catering website. The pilot now stays in Nagpur and is set to make it bigger in other cities within the North-Central belt, such as New Delhi, Itarsi, Jhansi, and Bhopal.