The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has withdrawn the earlier published tender for hiring consultants to monetize passenger data. A senior IRCTC official provided an update to a parliamentary panel headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday. The railway company announced the tender later this month. The tender became controversial due to privacy concerns related to the monetization of passenger and freight customer data. IRCTC has now informed that they are no longer pursuing the tender.
IRCTC MD and Chairperson Rajni Hasija appeared before the Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology along with other officials on Friday, PTI reported. The panel summoned IRCTC officials following a report announcing tenders for appointment of a consultant for digital data monetization.
IRCTC officials confirmed to the panel that the company was no longer pursuing the tender. “IRCTC has withdrawn the data protection bill due to non-clearance of the tender,” an IRCTC official informed the panel, as reported by PTI.
The rail ticketing company decided to withdraw the tender at IRCTC’s annual general meeting on Friday, which was scheduled before the summons before the panel.
Through a tender released in late August, IRCTC sought to “study and monetize data including information such as name, age, mobile number, gender, address, e-mail ID, class of travel, mode of payment, login or password” and other details.
