Indian Railways Serves 16 Lakh Meals Daily, Focus on Hygiene: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Indian Railways serves an average of 16 lakh meals daily across its network, with continuous efforts to ensure smooth and uninterrupted service, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Wednesday.

Responding to questions on complaints related to alleged corruption in awarding base kitchen contracts by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Vaishnaw stated that necessary measures are regularly implemented to enhance passenger services.

To improve food quality and hygiene onboard trains, the Railway Ministry has mandated that meals be supplied only from designated base kitchens. These kitchens are mapped to train routes, with clusters formed for efficient operations. "It is envisaged to award contracts for clusters of trains in place of an individual train. Emphasis has been placed on infrastructure development and fixing end-to-end accountability of food production and services onboard," the minister said.

IRCTC has awarded contracts for 168 train clusters under a two-packet e-tendering process, receiving a total of 653 bids. The clusters are divided into two groups—'Cluster A' for premium prepaid and Mail/Express trains with pantry cars, and 'Cluster B' for Mail/Express trains with pantry cars and those with train-side vending (TSV).

"Following the due process of tendering, IRCTC has awarded contracts of 168 clusters for which a total of 653 bids were received," Vaishnaw informed.

Base kitchens serve as the single point of meal supply to trains, equipped with standardized equipment for quality raw material sourcing, packaging, and inventory management. "As on March 15, a total of 717 base kitchens have been commissioned across the country," the minister added.

Regarding legal challenges, he noted that 17 civil cases were filed against the cluster-based tendering process in various High Courts. "Out of which 14 cases have been dismissed in favour of Indian Railways/IRCTC. Further, 3 cases are pending for hearing," Vaishnaw said.