One issue that constantly plagues Indian trains is food—its quality, pricing and delivery. Often travellers are given stale, overpriced food even on trains which are considered better, or they don’t get it when they need.
Indian Railways is gearing up to deal with this problem in a novel way. It is planning to install vending machines which will dispense ready-to-eat food to its customers 24×7. The service is likely to start with the debut of Utkrisht Double-Decker AC Yatri (Uday) Express which aims to connect metropolitan centres.
Uday Express is likely to attract business travellers and will run on the busy routes such as Delhi-Lucknow. The express service will run overnight to cater to the travellers who would start in the night and reach in the morning to save on their hotel expense.
The vending machine will help customers choose products of their choice at maximum retail price. It will have two payment options- cash and card.
The vending machine will be installed in every third coach of a train. Besides ready-to-eat food, the machine will also dispense some other eatables. It will give a brief description of the meal selected along with its price on the screen. The machine will dispense both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.