OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2015. The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has launched IRCTC and  Union Bank of India RuPay Pre-paid Card and also inaugurated the first ever Perishable Cargo Centre of Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) at Adarsh Nagar station near Azadpur Sabzi Mandi, Delhi.    While the IRCTC UBI pr-paid card was launched at Rail Bhawan, the CONCOR Cargo Centre was inaugurated from Rail Bhawan itself through video conferencing at a function here today.

Speaking on the occasion, the Railway Minister said that Railway is continuing its partnership with banks and financial institutions for the benefit of Railways and rail users. Referring to the pre paid cash card launched today, the Railway Minister said that the two institutions of repute namely IRCTC and Union Bank have come together to bring out this consumer friendly product for the benefit of the railway users. It is in line with the Prime Minister’s big programme of financial inclusion.

Referring the CONCOR Cargo Centre at Adarsh Nagar Delhi, Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu said that this perishable cargo centre will help farmers and consumers in a big way. Shri Suresh Prabhu said that the ripening of fruits and cold storage facilities at this cargo centre will help the farmers get a good price and good market for their product through this. The Minister said that Railways are doing much more for the socio-economic development of the country and contribution of the Indian Railways in several sectors is really remarkable. He pointed out that it is heartening to know that the CONCOR has implemented one of the announcements made in the Railway Budget by setting up this centre in such a very short period. Shri Suresh Prabhu also said that he has already instructed the railway officials to fast track the implementation of the all budgetary announcements.

In his speech, Minister of State for Railways, Shri Manoj Sinha said that these two facilities inaugurated today are really consumer friendly. He said that both PSUs of Railways namely IRCTC and CONCOR have done a good job. Shri Sinha pointed out that the perishable cargo centre will help the farmer’s while IRCTC-UBI RuPay Pre-paid cash card will help the railway users.

This unique RuPay Pre-Paid card has been developed jointly by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, Union Bank of India and National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) for the convenience of the travellers. The Prepaid card is loaded with an amount as desired by customer and can be redeemable for Rail ticket, to buy goods and services on IRCTC website. This card is the first of its kind in the market where both virtual as well as physical cards are being issued to the customer in two variants – Partial KYC with a loading limit of Rs.10,000 and full KYC with a loading limit of Rs.50,000. The first 5 transactions per card every month done on IRCTC for purchase of railways tickets will be FREE (no transaction charges) to the customer for the first 6 months only. For every subsequent transaction post the free usage, customer will be charged Rs.10/- per transaction. This Prepaid card may be targeted for use at IRCTC, tourism, e-catering, ASI, schools, colleges where there is a requirement of cash card for cashless transactions. The prepaid card has; Assured speed of transaction, Quick payments on IRCTC website. Attractive reward points on every transaction and 24*7 reloading of card

The Perishable Cargo Centre of CONCOR will help reducing the wastages that Indian agriculture is suffering from because of absence of proper cold chain facilities. This centre will be using latest “state-of-the-art” technology for ripening bananas in the first stage and mangoes thereafter in the healthier fashion based on healthier non-toxic Ethylene Technology for which CONCOR has provided specialised chambers. This Perishable Cargo Centre facility will be operated by CONCOR as a part of its Cold Chain initiative. The setting up of this facility by CONCOR will serve as a stimulator and encourage similar facilities in the private sector. CONCOR company will operate this facility at highest level of efficiency which will help entire farm community as well as consumers.

This CONCOR Perishable Cargo Centre has been developed at a total cost of approx. Rs.10 crore. This facility will offer washing and cleaning for raw banana and ripening cum cold rooms for fruits like banana, mango at competitive rates.

Salient features of the facilities are:

Ripening Chambers

·          12 Nos. of ripening chambers, each having capacity of 20 MT.

·          Size of each chamber is approx. 220 cubic meters.

·          Temperature of ripening chamber is 15+ 1.5 Deg. Celsius.

·          Pallet racking arrangements for keeping of 32 pallets in each ripening chamber.

Cold Rooms

·          2 Nos. of cold rooms having 100 MT capacity each room.

·          Size of each room is approx. 745 cubic meters.

·          Storage in cold room at two levels viz., ground and mezzanine.

·          Cold room temperature: 0+ 1.5 Deg. Celsius.

·          Sufficient space earmarked for parking/movement of trucks.

Also present among others on the occasion were Chairman, Railway Board Shri A.K.Mital, Member Traffic, Railway Board, Shri Ajay Shukla,  and other Board Members. Chairman-cum Managing Director IRCTC, Dr. A.K.Manocha  and Chairman-cum Managing Director, CONCOR Shri Anil Kumar Gupta and Chairman cum Managing Director, Union Bank of India Shri Arun Tiwari were also present on the occasion.