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The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) has formed a new catering policy by unbundling the current services on trains.
In order to achieve the objective of improving quality of catering services in railways, IRCTC has formed this new catering policy. IRCTC will set up new kitchens and upgrade existing ones. IRCTC will be responsible for management of Food Plaza, Food Courts, and Fast food units within the ambit of this policy.
According to media reports, the announcement was made a day after the Comptroller and auditor general (CAG) released a report critical of the food served in stations and trains. CAG came down heavily after observing that the food served at stations and in trains was “unfit for human consumption”.
IRCTC released a new catering policy in the beginning of this year. The policy allowed sale of a-la-carte items, ready-to-eat meals through e-catering and on-board services by IRCTC. In addition, responsibility of managing catering service on all mobile units having pantry car as well as on trains for which contracts were not given was assigned to IRCTC.
Under the new policy it has been mandated to take regular feedback from passengers and linking the performance to payment to the vendor. As per the new policy, the IRCTC will not have the right to outsource or issue licenses for provision of catering services to private licenses.
The Railway Ministry was reported to say in a statement that as per the new catering policy of 2017, IRCTC will manage catering services on all mobile units, and pantry car contracts will also be reassigned to railways’ catering arm. It also plans to install 1,100 water vending machines at 450 stations in 2017-2018 as part of its efforts to ensure clean drinking water at low cost in rail premises across the country. The water dispensed through these machines will be much cheaper than bottled mineral water, the ministry said.