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IRCTC to develop new consumer-friendly website Plans to start budget category hotels near railway stations Akshay Kumar Mumbai THE INDIAN RAILWAY Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations, is planning to launch a new website, which would be operational by the last week of April 2014. This website would be easily accessible and more user-friendly. Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, Pradip
Kundu, joint general manager, public relations, IRCTC, said, “We are launching a new website which would be more userfriendly. The capacity of the website would be increased drastically, from 2000 tickets per minute to more than 7000 tickets per minute.” In September 2013, according to a PTI report, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) had directed IRCTC to make its website more consumerfriendly, observing that it was “inaccessible” most of the time
and needed “drastic improvement”. This new development
is a positive step towards improving the efficiency of the
IRCTC website. Also, IRCTC has plans to start new budget category hotels in the country. This plan is still at a nascent stage as IRCTC has proposed this new venture to the state governments and is awaiting their replies. Kundu said, “We are planning to start new budget hotels, but still there are no concrete talks. We have already spoken to the state governments, and are waiting for their response.” These hotels would be opened in close proximity to the railway stations.
Combat to control the skies Express TravelWorld Sudipta Dev Manama WHEN THE first group of women air traffic controllers started working in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2004, they stormed what has always been the male bastion. “We were the first group of women air traffic controllers in the GCC region. It was initially a project, no one knew whether women could do the job of controlling the airspace,” said Hanan Falamarzi, who happens to be the second Bahraini woman to become an air traffic controller. Initially their numbers were four, today there are nine Bahraini women air traffic controllers in country, along with two expatriates. Falamarzi mentioned with pride that one of her former colleagues went on to join Gulf Air and became the first female pilot in the country. It has been a tough fight for them through the years, to prove their skills and ability to do the job. “After three years when we proved that we are
Hanan Falamarzi
good air traffic controllers like men they shifted us to civil aviation. The high management would like to see more women as air traffic controllers, but the problem was dealing with male air traffic controllers even after we got our license. I was the first female air traffic controller to get pregnant and had to face a lot of difficulty at the workplace. I was suspended and forced to stay at home. There was no rule or procedure for such a case. After delivery I had to get revalidation and get my license again,” stated Falamarzi.
She conceded that after 10 years things have changed to some extent. “They know that pilots prefer to deal with women air traffic controllers as we are more patient and can do multi-tasking, besides being less complaining,” she said. But are the new generation of Bahraini women taking inspiration from them to chalk out divergent career paths? “In our society no one knows or understands what we are doing. Our next step is to establish an organisation to talk about what women can do in aviation to attract more women into our career,” she mentioned. Falamarzi does not forget to add that she used to think that the western world had different way of dealing with these situations, but when she interacted with women air traffic controllers from those countries she realised that worldwide women face the same difficulties and challenges.
launches The Explorer
Global Panorama Showcase (GPS-2014) held in Nagpur witnessed the launch of the coffee table book titled 'The Explorer' brought out by Express TravelWorld
EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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February 2014