NEW DELHI, Nov 19: The Indian Railways has decided to bring back cooked meals on trains which were stopped citing Covid-19 restrictions last year.
With the restoration of full-fledged train services — 1,768 long-distance trains a day — the Railways Board on Friday brought out an order to restore cooked meals as well. Currently, only ready-to-eat, packaged food is available on payment basis on Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and on few other trains.
The decision effectively restores train services to the pre-pandemic state, although ready-to-eat meals would continue to be served on demand. Cooked food may start to be served from December 1, or even a bit earlier, subject to preparedness by the licensees.
According to sources, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will re-issue fresh tenders for a large number of food licensees to serve on trains. The organisation has been busy doing the paperwork for the past few days.
As per internal assessment of the Railway ministry as well as zonal railways, ready-to-cook meals — packaged poha, parantha, rajma chawal, upma etc —did not find much favour among passengers and were sources of passenger dissatisfaction. Railway users at various fora had indicated that they would want cooked meals back.
Officials said there is no need to recast the menus immediately and that pre-existing menus would continue for the time being.
This means the familiar platter with rotis, rice, vegetables, curd and even ice-cream etc would be back.
“In view of restoration of normal train services, requirements of travelling passengers and easing of Covid lockdown restrictions at eateries, hotels, restaurants and other such places across the country, it has been decided by the Ministry of Railways to resume the service of cooked food on trains,” reads an order from the ministry. In the pre-Covid times, the railways was used to serving around 11 lakh meals a day, including on trains and at its various other non-train facilities, called “static units.”
(Manas Dasgupta)