Don't like the food on train? Indian Railways wants your feedback

NEW DELHI: In its bid to improve hygiene, food quality and services in trains, the Indian Railways has started collecting feedback from the public from this month. "The feedback service is in line with the emphasis given by rail minister Suresh Prabhu on the best connect between railway administration and railway users," the railway ministry said in a statement.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been entrusted with the job of collecting the feedback, which will be done through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) with the number '139'. Under this system, passengers are being contacted randomly on their mobile phones to gather their feedback about the facilities provided by the Railways in six areas -- cleanliness of station/platform/train, quality of catering, level of cooling of AC, quality of food, punctuality of train and quality of bedrolls.

Out of the six facilities, a passenger is asked to send his/her feedback on only two facilities. They are given three options of pressing on mobile: 2 (Two) for Good, 1 (one) for Satisfactory and 0 (Zero) for unsatisfactory/Bad with regard to a particular amenity.

On an average 60-70 calls per day, per train are being made and efforts are on to make approximately one lakh successful calls per day to passengers of mail/ express trains, the ministry added.

The service was initially being tested on a few trains. The move, according to the ministry, is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of Swachh Bharat campaign to provide better service to passengers travelling in trains.