IRCTC puts Base Kitchens in back-burner
Instead food will be made available by setting up Base Kitchens' at major stations across the country.
Kochi: The rail commuters will have to wait for much longer to get quality assured food in trains and railways stations. The ambitious project of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to set up own ‘Base Kitchens’ in all major stations including in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram have been put on the backburner. The reason -- the railways is yet to officially notify new catering policy despite the promise two years back and including the same in last year’s budget.
“We’ve identified sites for setting up base kitchens in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram, prepared estimates and even the fund is ready, however, the new catering policy is yet to be notified which prevents us from floating the tenders for starting construction activities,” said a senior IRCTC official. The proposed new catering policy aimed at stopping pantry cars in trains and restricting hawkers. Instead food will be made available by setting up ‘Base Kitchens’ at major stations across the country.
“The ‘Base Kitchens’ will be similar to the services in airlines. The food will be prepared and packed in highly hygiene environment and served directly to trains and station food-stalls. The plan was to start the initiative in trains like ‘Rajdhani’ and extend the services to others in a phased manner. The system is such that upon any complaint, accountability can be easily fixed,” the official said.