Poor food quality continues to make long-distance train travel inconvenient

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: If the sandwich served to you on a train is smelly with a thin vegetable spread, the tea sachet is uncovered, rice/roti/paranthas are undercooked, curry is extra spicy, then you are not alone in finding the food served on Indian trains unappetising. 

Railways Minister has, no doubt, recently taken up a number of initiatives in making train travel convenient, keeping railway stations clean, digitization in lodging complaints etc, but long- distance rail travel remains inconvenient due to the poor quality of food served most of the time, despite steep catering charges levied .

 

A toll-free line 1800111321 was launched in 2013 for lodging complaint against the food served on trains. Another number 138 was launched in 2015.

A Passenger Feedback System through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) was started by Indian Railways through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) with effect from July 2015 on all Mail/Express and Superfast trains over Indian Railways’ system.

But, none seems to be working, and the quality of food served on long-distance trains remains of extremely poor quality.

Now, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation  has taken up an initiative of e-catering and has tied up with food aggregator Foodpanda for delivery of food aligned to the arrival time of the train at the station.  

What the Railways need to understand that availability of food on trains was never a concern. It is the quality of food that has always been an unpalatable issue!