No more pantry cars, IRCTC go back to base kitchen mode

IRCTC, which has been asked to take over all mobile pantry facilities of Indian Railways, would set up a base kitchen in the city from where cooked food would be packed in tamper proof containers before being loaded on to the trains.

“Railway Board will confirm our business plan on April 27 or before the month end. If we start the work immediately thereafter, we should be able to complete the initial kitchen in three months and start supplying Chennai-Mumbai trains,” said a senior IRCTC officer requesting anonymity.

Chennai-Mumbai route would be the second after New Delhi-Mumbai segment on which cooking would be completely stopped on board trains and instead pre-cooked food would be served to travellers. 

For this purpose, IRCTC would set up 34 kitchens across the country. At least a couple of them would come up in the Southern Railway (SR) zone. 

Existing pantry cars would be retrofitted with freezers, ovens and coffee vending machines after the redesigning, which includes provision of 240V (DC) power supply required to install temperature controlling facilities. 

“Perhaps, we will allow cooking of some simple snacks for a while. We will also set up mini pantries like in Shatabdi and Rajdhani expresses. The final design of the pantry will only be decided by Railway Board,” the IRCTC officer said, exuding confidence that the new scheme would attract major industrial caterers who could cook in bulk at a competitive price, thereby improving quality of food served to the travellers. 

In its business plan, IRCTC has even proposed PPP (public private partnership) and upward revision of prices (of food times) to improve food quality. 

Despite eliminating cooking on board trains, IRCTC would have one of its staff on trains and base kitchens to check quality. 

Another indirect benefit of the debatable cooking policy would be more seats for the people as the pantry cars would make way for extra seats.