Quality of IRCTC Catering services

Quality of IRCTC Catering services

A needful question has been raised in the Parliament by the member about the quality of foods and companies supplying in trains to the passengers. With the additional question, whether it is true, some black listed companies are also supplying food items in the name of other companies..?

The Ministry replied to all related questions as follows...

“Improvement in the quality of catering services is an on-going process. Supervision and monitoring have been strengthened through a mechanism put in place by deploying railway personnel, who check quality and hygiene and take corrective action in a time-bound manner. Feedback regarding quality of services is always taken from passengers through opinion cards.

Catering Monitoring Cells have been set up at Zonal and Divisional level for daily monitoring of the catering activities. Further, on the same pattern, a centralized Catering Complaint Monitoring Cell has been set up in Board’s office having a toll free number 1800-111-321 for prompt redressal of the passenger grievances related to the catering activities for real time assistance to travelling public.

Further, a transparent contract awarding, management and monitoring procedure has been defined in the New Catering Policy, 2010 for which Standard Bid Documents for award of catering contracts have been prepared by the Ministry by engaging professional agencies having domain knowledge and expertise wherein stringent eligibility criteria to ensure quality with detailed penalty clauses have been defined. Detailed instructions regarding waste management have been issued in order to maintain hygiene and cleanliness at all catering units.

As per extant Catering Policy, 2010, railways propose to have base kitchens in railway premises for closely monitoring the quality”.