Very soon, Indian railway passengers will be able to `customise’ their meal preferences on board — from ordering local cuisines enroute the journey to special food for infants or for that matter, even meal requirements for the diabetics.
Further allowing flexibility to the existing system where you can also decline meals service on board the elite trains like Rajdhanis, Shatabdis , Tejas and also make available pizzas, burgers, garlic breads etc during the journey, the Ministry of Railway has given a go ahead to its catering arm IRCTC to customise its menu to include local and regional cuisines as well as food suitable for diabetics, infants and health aficionados.
According to a note sent by the Railway Board to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the move is aimed at improving catering services on trains and gives passengers more options.
"As a measure to improve catering services on trains, it has been decided to give IRCTC the flexibility to customize the menu so as to include items of regional cuisines/preferences, seasonal delicacies, requirement during festivals, food items as per the preferences of different group of passengers such as diabetic food, baby food, health food options, including millet-based local products among others," the note said.
At present, the IRCTC has to get the menus, comprising mostly of standardised food items and beverages, approved by the Railway Board before it can introduce them in trains.
The note also stated that for 'prepaid' trains, in which catering charges are included in the passenger fare, the menu will be decided by the IRCTC within the tariff already notified.
In addition, sale of a-la-carte meals and branded food items on MRP will also be permitted on these 'prepaid' trains. Menu and tariff of such a-la-carte meals will be decided by the IRCTC, it noted. For other Mail/Express trains, the menu of budget segment items like standard meals will be decided by the IRCTC within the fixed tariff already notified.
Menu and tariff of 'janta' meals shall remain unchanged, it noted. Sale of a-la-carte meals and branded food items on MRP will be permitted on Mail/Express trains. Menu and tariff of such a-la-carte meals will be decided by the IRCTC, it said."While deciding the menu, the IRCTC shall ensure that upgradation in quality and standards of food and service is maintained and safeguards are built in to avoid frequent and undue changes such as curtailment in quantity and quality, use of inferior brands, etc to avoid passenger grievances," the note from the Railway Board said.
It also said the menu should be commensurate with the tariff and they should be pre-notified for information of passengers. The IRCTC had been providing local cuisines in trains as a part of tie-ups with chains where they shared the revenue earned.