New rail policy on cards, IRCTC to get back onboard catering

NEW DELHI: Seven years after the then railways minister Mamata Banerjee overturned her predecessor Lalu Prasad’s decision by divesting the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) from responsibilities of on-board catering, railways minister Suresh Prabhu has decided to hand back the charge to the corporation again.

The new rail catering policy – to be announced on Monday – will separate the functions of cooking and distribution.

Facing a deluge of complaints about the poor quality of food, the Railways is attempting to rope in established hoteliers to build base kitchens at major stations under public private partnership mode. The IRCTC will be responsible for distributing food.

Even as the policy change is expected to take time to come into effect — as base kitchens will need to be constructed — rail managers feel that the initiative will eventually help break the existing “catering cartel.”

Earlier, only a handful of firms and their subsidiaries have cornered majority of catering contracts. “Guidelines on the setting up of base kitchens will be stringent, which will enable established firms, such as the Nirulas and Haldiram, to come in. This will help improve food quality substantially,” an official said. The new policy will also stress on the need to promote e-catering activities, which provides passengers the option of booking meals from a panel of caterers selected by the IRCTC. Besides the 40 stations currently covered, several other stations will soon offer e-catering service in coming months.

Stalls on railway platforms will henceforth also be required to become “multi-purpose” and offer items of common use, such as cosmetics, medicines or books. Announcement on the new catering policy, which has been in the making for about a year, was delayed on account of resistance from the old group of caterers and also because of pricing issues .