Raghava
Seeing the moving world outside of a train window has a different experience. Watching the setting sun, fast passing trees and jungles, scenes of small villages and farms, heart-warming and beautiful sceneries and landscapes of India is all that Indian railway journeys offer you. Being a country of great diversity, you can find different aspects of lives in just one country. An Indian railway journey can help you experience India and its lifestyle. Indian Railways have a dense network across the country connecting each nook and corner of the nation; undoubtedly, Indian railway is the lifeline for transportation in India.
However, Indian railway journeys have been cursed with the stale and unhygienic food for years as the passengers had no option other than eating the food available at stations or through pantry car. Especially, during the long hours’ train journeys, the passengers were left with no option than to go for the fast-food from the halting stations coming en-route or buy so-called home-made food from stations; which always caused food-poisoning, nausea, headache and several other health problems.
A suitable solution was yet to be found, and an excellent idea struck Mr Manish Chandra, a tech entrepreneur from Bihar. After the brainstorming for good solutions for rail food, the concept of RailRestro came into existence. Later on, Mr Manish introduced few more travel and leisure solutions for the people, which made him not only a pioneering start-up entrepreneur from Bihar but also a chain tech entrepreneur of the tour and travel industries in India. His accomplishments and businesses have actually helped to solve the real problems of Indians with his pan-India services.
Mr Manish Chandra’s Profile – A young man from Bihar, Manish Chandra is managing Yescom group of companies, is also a start-up enthusiast who loves talking about technologies, business strategies, and start-up ideas. Currently, he is based in Patna, having the headquarters of his organization in Software Technology Parks of India, Patliputra. Manish Chandra started his entrepreneurial journey ten years back with tech and telecom services having introduced in Bihar for the first time. However, he couldn’t resist his urge to create a unique solution which can actually be called a start-up solving the problems of Indian people in real terms. Thus, later in 2015, the RailRestro’s ideation phase started into his mind.
RailRestro – RailRestro is the very first start-up of Manish Chandra, operating under the parent company, Yescom Group of companies owned and managed by Mr Chandra himself. RailRestro was introduced in 2015 to provide e-catering services on the train. At the time, it was a unique service of its kind which enabled food on track for the railway passengers directly from the nearby restaurants. With its unique USP and excellent services, very soon RailRestro flourished with great responses from customers. The customers and users advised RailRestro to expand its services to more stations, as initially, it was available at very few and selected stations.
Later on, RailRestro’s marketing team put their efforts into its expansion and very soon RailRestro services got available at all the leading stations in India. In 2016, RailRestro got affiliated with IRCTC hence becoming an IRCTC-authorized food wing. Following the authorization, RailRestro has been the customer’s first choice for food on train services. Today, RailRestro’s services are present at more than 450 stations and serving in more than 7000 trains in pan-India. RailRestro has recently completed five years of its operation even as it provided more than 10 million meals delivery with more than 50 lakh happy customers. Indeed, RailRestro is the best food on the train service provider which has made Indian railway journeys spicy and healthy with hygienic food delivery on the trains.
Induction of RailMitra – 3 years later, in 2018, Mr Chandra launched another Indian railway service app, RailMitra which aimed at furthering the comforts for Indian railways passengers. RailMitra is a utility app which is available on Google play store for PNR searches, Live Train Running Status, Seat Availability, Train Schedule, Train Fare Enquiry as well as food in train. Mr Chandra says that “RailRestro has been doing great with food delivery system in the Indian Railways, that’s why I thought to offer an AI-enabled app to the railway users which can help them in getting the right and timely information regarding their Indian railway journey, and this is how RailMitra took birth”.
“We have also added food on train services and hotel by hour services on RailMitra app for the ease and comfort of the passengers. Making it a one-stop solution for Indian railway passengers was our aim, and it is good to see that we have received excellent responses from our users”, added Mr Chandra.
Both of these companies function under Yescom group of companies, having its headquarters in Patna. Mr Chandra says, “Looking for office space in metros is not actually required for successful start-ups. Talent is available everywhere; you simply require to recognize them and enable them in the workforce. Yescom group of companies belongs to Bihar. Providing good opportunities to Bihar-based youths has also been my concern, and that’s why keeping the headquarters in Patna was also an aim behind this start-up”.
Today, Yescom group of companies has their two more office spaces – one at Bangalore and another at Noida. Still, all the operations and core strategic teams are based in the headquarter only.
On team spirit, Mr Chandra says that “We at Yescom family enjoy our work, and we celebrate each festival together at the office be it Holi or Eid or birthdays, company anniversaries, or lunch parties. We have more than 80 employees in the office, and we all live like a family.”
Besides the ongoing projects, Mr Chandra has also invested in some hyperlocal projects and keeps hunting for good start-up ideas. He is also a member of start-up ecosystem club in Patna namely “Bihar start-up club” which helps to incubate start-ups in Bihar. (10 million services)
Overall, Bihar has been growing into a new start-up hub in the country, and it’s good to see such national-level services are being offered to the nation from this small town especially in the field of technology.
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