Start-ups in the railway sector such as RailYatri.in, Travelkhana.com and Bookmytrain.com are attracting the attention of venture capitalists and private equity firms ahead of the upcoming rail budget that the investors hope will clear the tracks for greater participation of private companies while making the regulatory framework less complex for investors.
Delhi-based Palaash Ventures, for instance, has recently invested in travelkhana.com, an online aggregator platform for providing food to passengers during their train journey.
“We would like railways to be more open to work with private players – they should open bidding process for the private players. They should reduce the complex regulatory framework that has prevented private players from working along with the railways,” said Piyush Goyal, managing partner at Palaash Ventures.
Goyal said railway is a huge market and the growth potential is tremendous as nearly 23 million passengers travel in trains every day. “Even if a player is able to acquire 1% of that market, it will be huge,” he said, adding that the bidding process in place for the private players will encourage competition and work.
Pushpinder Singh, chief executive of Travelkhana.com, said his company’s business did not the start as a result of liberalisation of railways. “In fact, we got Indian Railways to have a liberalised view of the business,” said Singh.
Travelkhana.com, which started in 2012 by conducting a small pilot project in Jaipur and has grown to have 25,000 apps downloaded, serves 3,000 meals every day and caters to more than 130 stations across the country. The company says it is growing at 15-20% every month and has grown four times in the past one year.
The sector has immense potential as trains remain the largest mode of transport in the country, earning revenue of about Rs 57,900 crore. “We are engaged with the Railway Board at the highest level and we expect to see results of our recommendations showing up soon,” said Singh.
Bookmytrain, the first online platform that allows people to book a train ticket and pay for it in cash on delivery, has seen over 10,000 downloads in just a few weeks of its existence and acquired more than 50,000 users.
While people can book a ticket on the official website of Indian Railways, they need to pay for it in advance through credit or debit card or net-banking. “Indian Railways has taken a series of pragmatic steps towards liberalisation in recent years.
Many opportunities have opened up for private entrepreneurs to support railways as it continues to evolve,” said Anurag Bajpai, director, Bookmytrain.
RailYatri.in, launched in 2011, provides the entire gamut of information to passengers from the time they plan their journey to the end. The company’s co-founder and chief executive, Manish Rathi, said the NDA government, which took charge at the Centre in May last year, has taken positive steps for the sector. “We see the new government moving in the right direction by aiming at core areas like infrastructure upgrade and addition of new capacity. Regarding participation of private players, it may be more a matter of executing well on the ground where again the intent seems to be quite positive,” said Rathi.
RailYatri.in, which started generating revenues from its first year of operations, gets about 1.5 million hits daily and has about nine lakh apps downloaded. It has two angel investors – Blume Ventures in India and the US-based Ujama Ventures. “While we don’t expect the core rail services to be liberalised, we think there is a phenomenal value in addressing the customer’s needs,” said Karthik Reddy, managing partner, Blume Ventures.
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Indian Railway News 