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ShareBangalore: In order to improve the quality of food being served in trains, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has decided to eliminate cooking in trains by removing the facility from pantry cars and setting up base kitchens in railway stations.
"About 70 million people use the services of the Indian railway every day. Most of them complain about the bad quality of food served by the railways. Pantry cars, where the food is cooked, are not so hygienic. Thus, to meet the needs of all sections of passengers and upgrade railway services to that of the airlines, this new system is being introduced," IRCTC chief regional manager S Gagarian told DNA.
"This is not being introduced on an experimental basis. We're starting this system permanently with long distance trains. Base kitchens with modern facilities will be set up in most stations of the South Western Railways on the lines of Chennai. It will be first experimented in Bangalore City and Hubli stations. Although the idea was proposed two years ago, we've succeeded in implementing it only now," he said. The base-kitchen will be inaugurated in August in Hubli, the head office of the South Western Railways.
A similar kitchen will be opened on Platform Number 1 of Bangalore City railway station in September this year. Cooking has already been stopped in the Rajadhani Express running between Bangalore and New Delhi, in Shatabdi Express from Mysore to Bangalore, in Jodhpur Express to Bangalore and in Ajmer Express to Bangalore.
IRCTC has proposed to eliminate cooking in 26 trains which have pantry cars. This has already been implemented in six trains.
When long distance trains reach or cross important junctions, full-course meals will be loaded onto the train. For breakfast, idlis and sambar will be loaded. Dosas and omlets will be prepared in the pantry coach iteslf. For lunch and dinner, packed food will be loaded into the train from stations. Heating equipment will be on-board to warm the food, if needed.
However, basic items like snacks, coffee, tea and milk will be made available in the pantry car. The railways have taken this decision to avoid fire accidents. It is dangerous to cook food and pack food in one small coach. Also, usage of gas stoves in a moving train is always dangerous.
Therefore, the Central government is introducing this meal system across 200 main railway stations in India in a phased manner. The aim is to create 20 such base kitchens in the first phase. Nearly half a dozen of this will come up in southern stations like Arsikere, Davangere, Hubli, Gulbarga, Hindupur, Hosur, Ernakulam, Guntakal, Katpadi, and Chennai within four to five months, a senior Central Railway official said.
Bangalore will have the biggest kitchen, tenders of which are yet to be finalised, the official said.
IRCTC's main concern will be ensuring quantity, quality and hygiene. Thus the mega base kitchens will have a high degree of automated mechanisation to reduce human interference in handling food as much as possible.
In the long run, railways would give the sales jurisdiction for franchisees and outsource production to private companies and big brands in food chains, the official said.
