MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) & (b): Yes, Sir. Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has engaged private contractors to operate pantry car contracts of 413 pairs of trains. In addition, Private Contractors have also been engaged to provide catering services through Train Side Vending in trains without pantry cars and through Static Units at stations.
For provision of e-catering services, reputed service providers are also empanelled by IRCTC.
Details of all tenders of IRCTC including the eligibility criteria are available on IRCTC’s website http://www.irctc.com/tenders_En.jsp.
(c) to (e): The number of complaints received by the Railways against private catering companies for taking more than the prescribed price and violating the guidelines during the last three years are appended.
Since the identity of the catering firms which have indulged in cases of overcharging and other deficiencies in service are clearly known, appropriate penal action is taken, as required, against them without always conducting an enquiry. During 2018-19, out of the total number of 9183 complaints of various deficiencies in service, 3487 complaints were related to overcharging on which appropriate penal actions such as imposition of monetary fines, warning, actions under Disciplinary &Appeal Rules, etc. have been taken. The names of the catering firms penalised for deficiency in service will be laid on the Table of the House.
In case any instance of non-compliance of terms and conditions of contract is reported or noticed, strict action is taken against the service providers for deficiency in service. Details of such complaints and action taken can be seen in the appendix.
(f): To provide quality food to passengers, a new Catering Policy has been issued on 27th February 2017 vide which Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out unbundling of catering services by creating a distinction between food preparation and food distribution on trains.
For this purpose, meals for trains are to be sourced from kitchens owned, operated and managed by IRCTC. Various steps taken to provide quality food to passengers are as follows:
I. In order to upgrade quality of food preparation, IRCTC has upgraded 46 Kitchen Units in the last two years. CCTV cameras have been installed in 38 Base Kitchens for monitoring purposes and web-based live streaming facility is being extended to these kitchens.
II. Food Safety Supervisors have been deployed at Base Kitchens to monitor food safety and hygienic practices.
III. To upgrade the quality of meals to be served to the passengers, IRCTC is rationalising the menus.
IV. Branded food providers have been roped in to provide e-catering services in trains.
V. System of printing barcode and other details like name of kitchen, date of packaging etc. on food packets has been initiated.
VI. Regular and surprise inspections are conducted by Railway officials including Food Safety Officers.
VII. Examination of quality of food, hygiene and cleanliness in Pantry Cars and Base Kitchens through Third Party Audits.
VIII. Monitoring and supervision of catering service through operation of centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) toll free number 1800-111-321, Operation of All India Helpline No. 138, Twitter handle, CPGRAMS, E-Mail and SMS based complaints redressal.
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