Defaulting on license fee? Southern Railway catering units face action

Chennai: After having defaulted on the license fee for over three months, the operations of two huge catering units, VRR and NVRR, were terminated in the last week of March at Egmore railway station. Following this, the Southern Railway commercial department is going to come down heavily on non-payers, according to senior officials.

“The termination orders were issued in the second week of March after the contractor failed to pay the license fee. We didn’t want to come down heavily and close the units, keeping passengers in mind, but this decision has not affected services as 20 other catering units are functional on Egmore railway station including the IRCTC food plaza,” said a senior official without mentioning the dues pending by the catering units.

Another source with the Railways said that the dues pending by these catering units are to the tune of Rs 1.7 crore. “Government won’t face any loss as the security fee paid by the caterers is huge, and will be forfeited for the unpaid fee,” the official added.

According to the official, of the 163 catering units in Chennai division, only two had defaulted, and the rest of the 161 units were functioning smoothly. Officials are now taking strict action against unauthorized vending taking place at stations. “Last week, we held 11 unauthorized vendors in an inspection,” the official said. “We need the public’s help in cutting out unauthorized vendors at railway stations, most of whom end up fleecing customers. The issue is not just overcharging; many of them provide food that is cooked elsewhere and would adversely affect the consumer’s health,” he added.

Travelers are more worried about the quality of products being served, not the quantity of units. “Private catering units provide better food but the prices are usually high, and the units set up by the Railways fail to provide even quality coffee and tea,” said V. R. Rao, a frequent train commuter.