Railway to provide Ready to eat meals in Trains

Allotment of tenders to private licensees for providing onboard catering services to the passengers through pantry cars is an ongoing process. Further, a major initiative viz. E-catering has been taken by Railways through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to enable passengers to book the food of their choice.

E-Catering service is at present available in 1350 trains not having pantry cars, Train Side Vending and on 45 stations across Railway zones. Large reputed food chains in the catering business like KFC, Dominos, Haldiram, Bittoo Tikki Wala, Food Panda etc. have already been empanelled as vendors/aggregators for providing good quality variety food to passengers as per their choice.

Steps taken to ensure that good quality and hygienic food is served to the passengers include: (i) Imposition of penalties in case of deficiencies detected in services. (ii) Introduction of station based E-Catering for widening the range of options available to passengers for ordering food of their choice. (iii) Introduction of precooked food (‘ready to eat’ meals) in the range of options available to passengers. (iv) Operation of centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) (toll free number 1800-111-321) for prompt redressal of passenger grievances relating to the catering activities and real time assistance to travelling public. (v) Operation of all India Helpline (No.138) for rail-users to lodge complaints/suggestions regarding food and catering services.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 24.02.2016 (Wednesday).