Market sources said the IPO will be worth Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on Thursday filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed initial public offering (IPO).

Market sources said the IPO will be worth Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore.

According to the DRHP, IRCTC is the only entity authorised by the Indian Railways to provide catering services to railways, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations and trains in India.

The central public sector enterprise has also diversified into other business segments like e-catering, executive lounges, and budget hotels.

The issue comprises of two crore equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each through an offer for sale by the President of India acting through the Ministry of Railways (the selling shareholder).

Out of the net offer, equity shares may be reserved for eligible employees but not exceed five per cent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the company.

The book running lead managers to the offer are IDBI Capital Markets and Securities Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited and Yes Securities India Ltd.

Up to 50 per cent of the offer will be available for the allocation to qualified institutional buyers.

Further, up to 15 per cent of the offer will be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional bidders and 35 per cent of the offer will be available for the allocation to retail individual bidders.

IRCTC operates one of the most transacted websites in the Asia Pacific region with transaction volume averaging at 25 million per month and 7.2 million logins a day. Over 1.4 million passengers travel on a daily basis of which 71.42 per cent book their tickets online.