Southern Railway pioneer in delivering pizzas, claims IRCTC

IRCTC in south has a more than year-old partnership with retail food chains like Dominos, the same partnership northern railway claims credit for now. 

General manager, IRCTC, SS Jaganathan told DTNext that they have been working with Dominos and KFC for over a year now. Notably, the list of vendors supplying western and Indian delicacies outnumbers north. 

Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Adyar Ananda Bhavan and Food King are among the vendors who have been addressing the culinary requirements of rail commuters in south for long. 

However, one area where IRCTC could have got it wrong might be popularizing its services as not all rail commuters in the south are aware that they could get the food delivered from their favorite food chains. 

“I didn’t know that such a service existed even. All one could get was the regular south Indian delicacies from leading retail food chains if one didn’t like the quality and variety offered by vendors at the station or pantry car. Getting pizza from Dominos and chicken wings from KFC delivered at the station is something unheard of,” said Vivek Nagarajan who regularly shuttles between Chennai and Bengaluru. 

If only IRCTC had accorded the same priority to the delivery of western cuisines at railway stations, as much as it did for the new catering policy, the scheme of northern railway would have just reduced to an extension of service and not novelty.

Significantly, high on IRCTC agenda in south has of late been eliminating on board kitchens and setting up base kitchens in tune with the new catering policy.