Train journeys in India are the major transportation medium in the county connecting each corner of the Indian states. On average, 23 million people travel daily by Indian railways in the entire country. Indian Railways has not only earned its name in the county for its services within the county, but the Indian Railways is also counted among one of the world’s largest railway network. Railways services in India has been one of the cheapest mediums to travel,but at the same time, Indian railways have turned as the most comfortable transportation medium in the country. However, the unpredictability of train timings, PNR confirmations, seat availabilities and many such other queries of the passengers remain unanswered many times.
To solve these problems of Indian Railways related queries and provide a one-stop solution for the Indian Railways passengers, RailMitra portal was launched in 2018. RailMitra app and portal is AI-enabled which helps the Indian Railways passengers to plan their journey withfull updates of their journey along with timely updates and food delivery during their train journey.
The RailMitra AI-powered technology tracks train in real-time across India and ensure that fresh and hygienic food is delivered to the passenger according to their choice. RailMitra app is a tech-enabled and AI-powered umbrella app that provides all the information about train services from checking your PNR status to knowing the updates on train live status.
Founded in 2018 by Manish Chandra, this start-up is a result of Chandra’s experience with rail travel. “Regular travelling made me understand that once a passenger bought the train tickets, there was almost no technology used for a better train experience. When it came to the train food, there was a huge demand but no quality checks,” says Chandra. This demand drove him to start a service for the comfort of train passengers who can get delicious food in train and answers for all the rail-related queries in a few clicks.
RailMitra is a one-stop train enquiry portal for every single passenger who plans to travel by trains and wants instant Indian train enquiry service. It delivers a lot of rail-related services on a single platform so that you don’t have to move from one website to another in search of your queries.
It aims at making train travel full of fun. RailMitra provides a comprehensive package of services and features when it comes to preparing your journey. The bunch of articulated services available with RailMitra will help every train traveller plan their trip efficiently. The app’s AI-driven interface is helpful to users travelling by trains through India.
The services offered by RailMitra include PNR checking facilities, Indian Railways Train Schedule and Seat Availability Enquiry, Live train tracking facility, Order food on train and Book hotel nearby railway stations by hours for the passengers. These facilities are being used and trusted by the RailMitra users from the time of its inception.
Starting Story of RailMitra
Mr Manish Chandra is the CEO and founder of RailMitra. Travel is a passion for Chandra which led him to revolutionise the way passengers search for their train enquiry information and train food. He felt that if a passenger buys a ticket, there is very little technology that meets the needs of the passenger for food, local transport and accommodation. Due to this, Manish came up with this idea of capitalizing on this opportunity.
He states his vision for the business as,”Starting from my school time, it was somewhere in my mind to be a job-creator and proving the great solutions for the actual problems faced by the general people. To start something new, innovative and useful altogether, the concept of a start-up was very clear to me from my teenage years itself. It was the time when “start-up” and “start-up-ecosystem” were not popularised very much. Well, thanks to my mentors and initial partners who helped me in enhancing my start-up skills and empowered me with the courage and support to start RailRestro and later on RailMitra. Both businesses are doing great. Now, I’m actively looking at business expansion and some new projects to introduce as soon as possible in the hospitality sector.”
Including the departments of Marketing, Customer Service, Operations, and Development, it has more than 80 members that make a strong team. Logistics are taken care of mainly by the vendors who handle the deliveries.
Capitalisation and Initial Challenges
“There have been many challenges. Greatest was to gain the confidence of restaurants and convince investors that this method of food distribution was scalable. I visited several cities in India to convince the restaurant owners to do business with us and explained the viability of the start-up business,” says Chandra.
The founder has invested a handsome amount of money so far by himself. While starting up, he faced many challenges, such as targeted customer acquisition, process training, operations and logistics management, and competition from existing and emerging players. It helps vendors and restaurants to achieve quality and efficiency. Additionally, it completes a fulfilment cycle from the point of order to distribution, customer reviews and reconciliation.
Facilities Provided By RailMitra
RailMitra is a one-stop solution for Indian Railways passengers. The passengers can check their PNR status from this app and also check the PNR predictability, train time-table, make train fare enquiry etc. with RailMitra App.
RailMitra also has one of its great features of booking hotelsnearby railway stations by the hour. This feature has enabled thousands of passengers to get hotels for a short stay in a hotel near the railway stations. The people needing a short stay in the town can get rid of paying the full amount to the hotels by using the RailMitra’s Book hotel feature.
Altogether, RailMitra is a one-stop solution for every Indian Railways user, and it deserves a space in your smartphone for making your train journeys easier. This app has done very well in the last two years of its inception, and it is one of the leading Railway utility apps for the Indian Railways passengers.
