Sick of seeing meal trays near rail toilets? Things may change

NEW DELHI: The unpleasant sight of food plates stacked along the toilet area and vestibules on a train journey would soon be a thing of the past if Railways' plan to overhaul their catering operation is any indication.

The new Catering Policy-2010 unveiled last week seeks to earmark suitable space in flagship trains like Rajdhani and
Duronto for stacking the meal plates.

The policy also brings a plan to introduce lightweight specially designed compact trolleys in these trains to ensure
that food is not kept on the floors at the time of service.

"The trolleys would provide quick, clean and hygienic services in trains," it says.

The policy which comes against the backdrop of increasing passenger complaints about quality of food being served
onboard trains also underscores the need to redesign pantry cars of Rajdhani and Duronto trains to ensure minimum handling before meals are served to passengers.

"Pantry cars should be designed to ensure that pre-cooked and hygienically packed food are supplied from base kitchens with minimum handling in transferring the same to the passengers," it says.

Railways have announced that they will take over the catering operation from IRCTC, a Railway PSU, in all Mail and
Express trains including the premier trains in a phased manner after the release of the policy document.

Interestingly, the policy states that all Shatabdi and Duronto class of trains should have mini pantries equipped
with modern gadgets such as hot cases, water boiler, bottle cooler in all coaches.

"There should be no cooking and washing on board. Food should be served in pre-set trays, and service in all the
coaches should be through trolleys," it said.

The policy also talks of providing 'automatic self vending machines' at stations. The machines shall be permitted
only in the form of stand-alone self dispensing units.

The operations of the AVMs shall not involve any manual interface at all and shall be through coin-operated dispenser, it says.

Since all trains are not provided with pantry cars, 'train side vending' must be ensured from a suitable unit of
nominated stations en route, the policy says.

It also underlines that pantry cars should be attached to more and more premier super fast and Mail and Express trains. Besides, manufacture of pantry cars should be progressively increased, it says.