IRCTC's pilot project will run till March next year, and its performance will be reviewed later.
The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched a pilot project of a 'station-based e-catering' service allowing passengers to order meals as per their choice.
These meals will be delivered at stations from popular private caterers.
It is important to note that this service is for getting meals delivered while the train is halted at the eligible stations (listed below), and when the train is moving. However, meals can be delivered to the berth, if the details are provided.
"Station-based e-catering will be only for stations and not on moving trains, IRCTC group General Manager, East Zone Debashis Chandra has said.
Eligibility
In the first phase of the project, all trains passing through 45 specified railway stations, including nine in the east zone, namely Howrah, Sealdah, Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Kharagpur and Mughalsarai can order meals according to their preference.
The other stations under this project are namely, New Delhi, Allahabad, Kanpur Central, Lucknow, Varanasi, Chennai Central, Mumbai Central, Delhi, Bangalore city, Madurai, Amritsar, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Jaipur, Bilaspur, Anand Vihar, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Ludhiana, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Chennai Egmore, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thrisur, Yasvantpur, Nagpur, Pune, Agra Cantt, Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara.
How to order
IRCTC has put in place three ways to order meals at the station.
1) Online: Passengers interested can order their meals at www.ecatering.irctc.co.in.
2) Toll free number: Passengers can call 0120-2383892-99/ 1800-1034-139 (toll free)
3) SMS: You can send SMS Meal to 139 along with your PNR and seat numbers
Payment mode
Passengers ordering through this service can either pay online or pay by cash when the food is delivered to them.
Food options/ prices
Besides food from IRCTC-managed food plazas and fast food units, reputed food chains like McDonald's, KFC, Switz Foods, Only Alibaba, Dominos, Haldiram, Bikanerwala, Nirualas, Sagar Ratna, and Pizza Hut, have entered into a tie-up with IRCTC to serve the passengers passing through the aforementioned listed stations.
On food prices, Chandra said, "Food prices are to be market-driven but we are focused that the food items supplied are hygienically packaged in eco-friendly, bio-degradable take-away packets and usage of plastic for packaging must be minimal if not totally eliminated. In fact, we will conduct regular checks of stations to ensure that meals items are provided to the passengers."
Cancellation
Meal orders can be cancelled two hours before reaching the station where they are scheduled to be delivered. Online payments will be refunded after deducting a cancellation charge.
Feedback
IRCTC has also put into place a dedicated call centre for the facility which will be functional from 6 am to 10 pm everyday.
It was learnt, that alongside e-catering, IRCTC was offering meals from "Jan Ahaar" (budget food), food plazas and fast food units.
This pilot project will be continued till end of March next year after which a review will be conducted on the performance, he said.
(With agency input)
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