IRCTC To Upgrade Kitchens And Set Up New Ones

The food quality on board Indian Railways need an upgrade and regarding the same, the Lok Sabha has received a written reply from the Minister of State for Railways on Wednesday. He has said in his letter that the existing kitchens of the railways will be getting an upgrade along with setting up of new ones according to the report by the Economic Times.

Quality Of Food In Trains

“The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out the unbundling by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution on trains. In order to upgrade quality of food preparation, IRCTC is to set up new kitchens and upgrade existing ones,” said the Minister, Rajen Gohain in his letter.

He also added that the kitchens handled by the zonal kitchens also come under the IRCTC according to a mandate issued last year. “Food Plaza, fast food units and food court will continue to be managed by IRCTC. At present, IRCTC has taken over almost all units in phased manner,” he said. To add to this Gohain said that contract allotment procedure for those running the stalls on platforms has also been simplified.

Initiatives By IRCTC

The letter also talked about how the IRCTC has taken up the initiative of mobile catering services in the trains. “The menu of prepaid trains has been revised to upgrade the quality of meal served to the passengers and the meal trays of bio-degradable material with air tight sealed cover for packing of meals from kitchens has been introduced initially in selected Rajdhani and Duronto trains,” said the letter by Gohain.

Along with this initiative, Gohain also mentioned the provision of hand sanitizers to the passengers before meal service and the constant monitoring of the catering services. “The on board monitoring staff have been provided with pre-installed complaint or feedback monitoring application on mobile tablets. Further, CCTV cameras have been installed in base kitchens for real time monitoring. Sixteen base kitchens of the IRCTC have been up-graded with modern and mechanised equipment. Food safety supervisors have been deployed in IRCTC managed base kitchens for audit of food safety, hygiene and sampling of the cooked food and raw material,” he said in the letter.