London: At least half of all calls to National Rail Enquiries in Britain will be handled from India under a 100 million Pounds contract awarded last evening.

The Association of Train Operating Companies said BT and Ventura had won the five-year contracts from April after an "exhaustive" tendering process.

A spokesperson of the Association said BT's calls would be answered by their partner ClientLogic at centres in Bangalore in India and Derby and Newcastle in the UK while Ventura's calls will be answered in Mumbai in India and Dearne Valley, South Yorkshire.

About 150,000 people call the rail enquiries service each day, making it the busiest number in the UK. Under the new deals, half of these calls will be answered at Indian centres.

Train operators are the latest big names to switch call centres to India, after banks HSBC and Abbey, and insurer Axa, in moves which unions say have cost 50,000 jobs.

Last month, home shopping catalogue companies Kays and Great Universal cancelled their Indian call centres, claiming they provided a poor service and restored their UK service, creating 250 jobs.