OREANDA-NEWS. June 08, 2011. As announced in the Railway Budget 2011-12, the Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the Rail Yatri Sevaks with modern trolleys to six more stations. These six stations are New Delhi (Platform No. 1 and 16), Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.

 Modern Luggage Trolleys with brakes, similar to those provided at airports (standard dimensions) will be provided for round the clock service. These trolleys should be provided by service providers who will be engaged for each station through a separate open-tender process to be followed by the zonal Railways. The contractual period shall be for one year.

 These trolleys will be provided by service providers with no initial or recurring investment by the Railways. The service provider providing these trolleys will have to pay annual license fees to the Railways based on the highest financial bid in the open tender.

 The number of trolleys to be provided at a station will be decided by the Zonal Railways based on the requirement and taking into account the congestion at the platforms of the Railway station. The number of trolleys, however, will not exceed 50 on a station.

 Service provider shall be allowed to advertise on these trolleys in accordance with the guidelines stipulated for advertisement on Railway premises with respect to aesthetics, public morale etc. The space for advertisement will be fixed by the Zonal Railways and will be notified while inviting the tender. The advertising material will have to be approved from the Railway authority before display. There will be no advertising which may affect the business of the Railways negatively like advertising of airlines etc. Railways will specify this area of advertisement as additional space in cases where the bulk advertisement rights for commercial publicity are awarded. The space used for advertisements on trolleys will not be included in the bulk advertisement rights.

 The Zonal Railways will notify the specific telephone number on which senior citizens and ladies can book the luggage trolley in advance. The “Rail Yatri Sevaks” will hold a placard with number to help the passengers in identification of the assigned trolley. The passenger booking the service will furnish the PNR to the “Rail Yatri Sevak” for the purpose of verification.

 It will be clarified by the Zonal Railways that “Rail Yatri Sevaks” are deployed by the service provider. Their deployment is purely contractual in nature and no facilities viz. absorption in railway service, regularization of service, bonus, railway pass facilities etc. will accrue to the service provider or “Rail Yatri Sevaks”.