AMN / NEW DELHI
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) has formed a new catering policy by unbundling, the process to seperate food distribution and cooking, of the current catering services on trains.
This comes after the Comptroller and auditor general (CAG) released a report criticising the food served in stations and trains. In its report, CAG had said, the food served in trains is unfit for human consumption and the hygiene standards at railway catering units are below par.
In a statement the Railway Ministry said, that as per the new catering policy of 2017, the IRCTC will manage catering services on all mobile units, and pantry car contracts will also be reassigned to railways’ catering arm.
More than two crore passengers travel on Indian Railways on a daily basis and railways provide approximately 11 lakh meals to passengers every day, out of these 10 lakh are provided on board itself.
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, Fast food units within the ambit of this policy.
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 new policy, the IRCTC will not have the right to outsource or issue licenses for provision of catering services to private licensees.
