Nagpur: Five months after it took over the catering operations at Nagpur, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), an arm of the Indian Railways, will start its food supply operations from August first week.
“Initially, meals will be supplied aboard three trains — Nizamuddin-Bengaluru Rajdhani, Bengaluru-Nizamuddin Rajdhani and Yeshwantpur-Delhi Rohilla Duronto Express. More will be added to the list later,” said regional IRCTC officials.
“At 1,100 passengers per train, we will cater to 3,300 passengers with good quality food now. Both veg and non-veg food will be supplied through base kitchen at Nagpur between Rs85-Rs112,” they said.
Under the New Catering Policy-2017, IRCTC was handed over the base kitchens at Nagpur and Ballarshah stations in March. However, as pantry car contractors challenged the move to supply food by IRCTC, the base kitchens were non-functional. Now, new licensees have been appointed for pantry cars.
At Nagpur, IRCTC spent over Rs20 lakh for automatic machines like roti maker (churns out 20 chapatis in 60 seconds), boilers, vegetable cutter, steam kettles, dough kneader and other equipment. The IRCTC has appointed a Delhi-based licensee at Nagpur for food supply. For the past four months, the staff was sitting idle and equipment gathering dust.
“IRCTC has introduced a clause making it mandatory that meals over RSD (Rajdhani,
Shatabdi, Duronto) trains will be supplied through base kitchens only. The pantry car contractors will now serve breakfast only. Accordingly, the three premium trains will get better food now from Nagpur,” officials said.
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