Railways to set up 16 Rail Neer water bottling plants

Process of setting up the first one at Allahabad under public-private partnership mode has already been finalised. At present, IRCTC operates 2 plants, one in Nangloi (Delhi) and the other one in Danapur (Bihar).

By PTI | Feb 17, 2011, 02.24 PM IST

NEW DELHI: In a move which could see a drop in prices of packaged ' Rail Neer' drinking water bottles, served in trains, Railways have firmed up plans to set up 16 new bottling plants across the country under PPP mode.

"While there was proposal for setting up of six bottling plants in the Railway Budget, it was revised and scaled up to 16 new plants," said an IRCTC official, the organisation which is handling the Rail Neer plants.

At present, Rail Neer bottles, priced at Rs 12 each, are served only on-board trains.

"The number of plants would make the packaged water bottle more economical. Today we transport the cartons over 400 kms away leaving little scope to cut price," he said.

The process of setting up the first one at Allahabad under public-private partnership mode has already been finalised, he said.

At present, IRCTC operates two plants -- one in Nangloi (Delhi) and the other one in Danapur in Bihar -- catering to the requirement for the entire country.

The official said trial run for the third plant at Chennai will start in February. It will have double the production capacity of the existing two plants, rolling out 15,000 cartons per day.

Towards the end of this year, the fourth plant at Mumbai with a capacity to produce 25 cartons per day, would also start operations, the official said.

Each carton has 12 bottles. The official said 16 new plants would also help Railways to launch the Rail Neer bottles in markets.

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