Business Standard: After MakeMyTrip deal, this is another one in the online travel marketplace. Yatra Online, the first online and centralised travel services company for the Indian market, has secured initial funding from Reliance Capital, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Promod Haque’s leading venture capital firm, and Television 18 group founded by Raghav Bahl.

“Yatra will help businesses and consumers book airline, railway and bus tickets and reserve hotel rooms and car rentals by calling Yatra’s call centre or by going to the website or by using their mobile handsets. Yatra will provide travel-related information, pricing, availability and reservations for airlines, hotels, railway, buses and car rentals across 5,000 large cities and small rural areas throughout India,” a release from TV18 said. The service will be operational in the first half of 2006, the release said.