This is to provide quality and hygienic food to passengers.
In its endeavour to provide quality and hygienic food to passengers, railways have decided to conduct a third party audit of catering services by independent and reputed agencies accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies.
"We have issued guidelines for hiring accredited auditing agencies for the third party audit at periodic intervals," said a senior Railway Ministry official.
As per the guidelines issued in this regard, 16 railway zones have been divided into four groups with Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern Railways as the nodal Zonal Railway for each group.
The nodal zonal railways have been entrusted to empanel these accredited auditing agencies for the third party audit for their respective group of railways.
He said improvement of catering services is an on-going process and concerted efforts are being initiated to provide quality and hygienic food to passengers.
According to the initiatives, railways have developed and operationalised an institutionalised mechanism for monitoring of quality and hygiene of catering services through regular inspections at various levels.
The passenger satisfaction levels are also regularly monitored through direct feedback and other means to address catering-related complaints.
The steps taken to improve the quality of food in railways include introduction of e-catering at all major stations for widening the range of options available to passengers for ordering food of their choice.
Introduction of precooked food, operation of centralised Catering Service Monitoring Cell for prompt redressal of passenger grievances relating to catering activities and real time assistance to travelling public.
He said there are provisions for imposition of penalties in case of deficiencies detected in services.
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