CR bans cooking food on railway platforms for safety purposes

The CR officials said they need to rethink the menu now which will avoid cooking food on the platforms. The food stalls at railway stations ensure that passengers commuting on the local trains get decent food at a reasonable rate

Mumbai: Five days after an induction stove caught fire at one of the food stalls at Byculla station, the Central Railway (CR) on Wednesday decided to impose a ban on cooking inside the platforms for safety purposes. As a result, food stall vendors cannot bring hot plates, induction or any other electric cooking stoves inside the station for preparing snacks.

Mumbai...22 December 2010...News To Avoid any accident, railway stall maintaining an Electric Gas at Dadar railway station platform no. 3 . photo by Rajendra Gawankar (Hindustan Times)

The CR officials said they need to rethink the menu now which will avoid cooking food on the platforms. The food stalls at railway stations ensure that passengers commuting on the local trains get decent food at a reasonable rate.

Earlier the food stall vendors were cooking food using gas stoves. This practice was stalled in August 2018 after the shift to cooking food using an electric stove.

“According to the policy guidelines, there should be no cooking on platforms at suburban stations. Catering licensees under your jurisdiction should be instructed to refrain from cooking on platforms. No equipment related to cooking should be allowed in stalls/trolleys in suburban stations (not even electric stoves or induction). Any violation should be immediately highlighted so that necessary action can be initiated,’ reads the circular, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times.

This decision was taken after a minor fire incident inside a food stall on September 22 at Byculla station. The induction electric stove caught fire that was doused in a short time using fire extinguishers. In fact on the very day, CR also issued a circular addressing it to all station managers and commercial inspectors about the same.

On Wednesday, however, it was business as usual with hungry commuters seen enjoying the food at these stalls. The staff at these food stalls were seen cooking food and preparing fried items using electric stoves, fryers and induction equipment.

“People want hot food more than packaged wafers and chips or even bhelpuri. After the gas stoves were stopped, these electric stoves remained both safe and useful in catering to commuters’ demand for hot and warm food. We are holding meetings with the rail officials trying to find a mid-way,” said a food stall owner on Central Railway.

Items like bread pakora, kachori, vada, samosa, flat puri etc., all of which need to be fried, are popular among the passengers. These are usually stored in glass caskets on the counter. The electric stove is used to heat and cook ragda which is made of pulses.