New catering policy to end monopoly of pantry car contractors

Come January 2010, Railways will not allow a caterer to serve in more than 10 trains.

Come January 2010, Railways will not allow a caterer to serve in more than 10 trains.

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"A contractor will not be given contract for more than 10 pantry cars as per the new catering policy to be announced next month," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The new policy is aimed at ending monopoly of a few contractors who are cornering majority of the pantry car contracts, he said.

Currently, there are 400 trains including Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express which have pantry car facilities.

The move comes in the wake of widespread complaints regarding quality of food served in trains. Though Railways have initiated several steps, situation has remained more or less the same.

"Currently a contractor can handle more than 30 pantry cars. The aim of the new policy is to improve the efficiency of service providers by restricting it to only 10," said the official.

IRCTC, responsible for catering management in Railway premises, has introduced toll free number and SMS facilities for registering complaints against catering services in trains and stations.

"We have terminated contracts of seven contractors and imposed penalties of Rs 60 lakh on about 30 contractors on the basis of passenger complaints," the official said, adding the complaints vary from bad service, overcharging, poor quality and less quantity of food.