Here’s how IRCTC responds to Congress’ ‘take-over’ claim after Adani-Trainman deal

Always in the news for different reasons, Congress party leader Jairam Ramesh, on June 17 night, retweeted an information provided by a media house that Adani first competed with IRCTC and then took-over it. Mentioning Adani acquiring ticketing platform Trainman, he tweeted, “First compete with IRCTC…then take over.”

IRCTC responded, “This is a misleading statement. Trainman is one of the 32 authorised B2C partners of IRCTC. Changing the stake won’t make any difference.” It added, “It will only complement IRCTC and is not a threat or challenge to IRCTC.”

In response to Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh’s tweet on Adani acquiring ticket platform Trainman, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), on June 18, stated that it will neither pose a threat nor a challenge to the IRCTC. Trainman, now owned by a fully-owned firm by Adani, won’t pose a danger or a competition to IRCTC; rather, it will only complement.

According to the information, Adani Digital Labs, a fully owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, announced the acquisition of Trainman recently. To acquire 100% ownership in Trainman, the business executed a share purchase agreement. This represents the Adani group’s entry into the railway industry.

Adani Enterprises, meanwhile, has already made a previous investment in the travel and booking sector when it acquired a minority position in Cleartrip, Flipkart India’s online travel aggregator, in October 2021.

About Trainman

Trainman is an IRCTC-approved railway ticket-purchasing service. Vineet Chirania and Karan Kumar, both IIT-Roorkee graduates, created it in 2011 as a company for all difficulties relating to railway tickets. Real-time seat availability, live train status, and passenger name data are all provided by the firm.