Food in Railways - Issues, Root Causes, Solutions
Dear Friends,
Below are the issues, root causes and solutions as identified by you with respect to Food in Indian Railways.
Kindly review them and if anything of importance is missing , please add. We are in the process of finalizing the whitepaper and will soon submit it to the Railways Ministry for action.
Thanks for your participation!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
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Food in Indian Railways
Issues identified:
1. Oil used in food is smelly
2. Pantry car is in a very unhygienic condition
3. Food is served cold
4. Chapatis are under-cooked
5. Tea bags are sub-standard
6. Water bottles served with broken seals
7. Presentation is bad – trays are wet and dirty
8. Pantry boys don’t wear a uniform or gloves
9. Trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani also serve sub-quality food
10. Utensils used are dirty
11. No proper place for food storage. Food trays kept on the floor
12. No way to provide feedback on food
Root causes identified:
1. Catering services are outsourced, no system for quality check
2. Contracts are usually taken by small time vendors/ businessmen who want to make maximum money during contact period
3. Food is prepared and served by novices
4. No background check while choosing vendors
5. No sense of responsibility - they use substandard food ingredients to save more & more money
6. There is a corrupt nexus between the vendors and the officials
7. Mistakes of the food contractors and pantry boys are overlooked
8. Pantry boys fill the bottles with tap water and make money on them
9. Contractors not fined in case they don’t meet the required standards
10. No supervisor appointed to oversee the pantry operations
11. Pantry boys not educated on self -hygiene
12. Visitor entry allowed via pantry to different coaches – brings more dirt to the pantry car
13. Insufficient facilities to preserve huge quantity foods
Solutions identified:
1. Standard dispensing machine should be installed for items like milk, cornflakes, coffee, tea etc.
2. Passengers should be able to pre-order from a fixed menu
3. Tough quality checks should be put in place for selecting food vendors
4. Menu cards and price list is to be displayed in the coaches
5. Food contractor's name and contact number, along with the concerned IRCTC
6. Supervisor's name and contact number are to be displayed in each bogie
7. The serving boys should necessarily wear a clean uniform and identity cards
8. Pantry boys should be trained on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness
9. CCTV should be installed in the pantry cars
10. The unauthorised vendors should not be allowed to enter the platforms
11. Regular surprise quality checks of the pantry should be done by senior officials
12. High penalty should be imposed on defaulter contractors
13. Contracts should be given to big and established vendors
14. An effective feedback mechanism should be set up
15. Railway officer must take action on any complaint within specified period of time
16. Pantry coach should be redesigned with modern facilities and amenities
17. Engaging Local Self Help Groups or NGOs for food outsourcing can improve the situation more
Below are the issues, root causes and solutions as identified by you with respect to Food in Indian Railways.
Kindly review them and if anything of importance is missing , please add. We are in the process of finalizing the whitepaper and will soon submit it to the Railways Ministry for action.
Thanks for your participation!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food in Indian Railways
Issues identified:
1. Oil used in food is smelly
2. Pantry car is in a very unhygienic condition
3. Food is served cold
4. Chapatis are under-cooked
5. Tea bags are sub-standard
6. Water bottles served with broken seals
7. Presentation is bad – trays are wet and dirty
8. Pantry boys don’t wear a uniform or gloves
9. Trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani also serve sub-quality food
10. Utensils used are dirty
11. No proper place for food storage. Food trays kept on the floor
12. No way to provide feedback on food
Root causes identified:
1. Catering services are outsourced, no system for quality check
2. Contracts are usually taken by small time vendors/ businessmen who want to make maximum money during contact period
3. Food is prepared and served by novices
4. No background check while choosing vendors
5. No sense of responsibility - they use substandard food ingredients to save more & more money
6. There is a corrupt nexus between the vendors and the officials
7. Mistakes of the food contractors and pantry boys are overlooked
8. Pantry boys fill the bottles with tap water and make money on them
9. Contractors not fined in case they don’t meet the required standards
10. No supervisor appointed to oversee the pantry operations
11. Pantry boys not educated on self -hygiene
12. Visitor entry allowed via pantry to different coaches – brings more dirt to the pantry car
13. Insufficient facilities to preserve huge quantity foods
Solutions identified:
1. Standard dispensing machine should be installed for items like milk, cornflakes, coffee, tea etc.
2. Passengers should be able to pre-order from a fixed menu
3. Tough quality checks should be put in place for selecting food vendors
4. Menu cards and price list is to be displayed in the coaches
5. Food contractor's name and contact number, along with the concerned IRCTC
6. Supervisor's name and contact number are to be displayed in each bogie
7. The serving boys should necessarily wear a clean uniform and identity cards
8. Pantry boys should be trained on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness
9. CCTV should be installed in the pantry cars
10. The unauthorised vendors should not be allowed to enter the platforms
11. Regular surprise quality checks of the pantry should be done by senior officials
12. High penalty should be imposed on defaulter contractors
13. Contracts should be given to big and established vendors
14. An effective feedback mechanism should be set up
15. Railway officer must take action on any complaint within specified period of time
16. Pantry coach should be redesigned with modern facilities and amenities
17. Engaging Local Self Help Groups or NGOs for food outsourcing can improve the situation more
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View all 247 comments Below 247 comments
At many astations empty minaral water bottles are collected by strat boys ,take it to nearby tap water ,filled and sealed under the very nose of railway staff and sold to passengers travelling who are unaware of the source !. K y sawant more
Nov 15
Sir, Please specify to prepare Veg & non-veg separately and untensil / staff for the preparation should be separate.Most of veg items are prepared on the same non-veg utensils and being served simultaneously with the same trays and the staffs. Â Tuhin Ranjan Das, On Thursday, 25 September 2014 5:15 PM, Rajendra Pratap Gupta wrote: more
Oct 29
In my personal opinion I feel it is administratively very unweildy, difficult to manage and resource guzzling to have a running pantry car in Trains. Just look at the amount of investment here per Train, a whole compartment for this, the no. of persons employed, the storage, the quality and hygiene sttandards to be maintained on a running train, the wastage and pilferage, the safety issues, all associated 2nd rung problems to the Railway organisation if anything goes wrong here- even if Train bookings are streamlined, the Trains run safe and on time (which is the primary job of the Railways). These are huge avoidables when the first and pressing requirements to focus for the Indian Railways are many other. Moreover generally Indians have a habit of carrying packed food during travelling and even otherwise quality outlets for food / standard food fare can be ensured at Railway Stations during Train hours by tying up with leading Hotel/ Restaurant chains of that area. This could be a more economical, viable and effective alternative to the Indian Railways for the current times at least. more
Oct 26
Complaint / feed back book is without any carbon copy. You can write your complaint / feed back and hand over to the attendant. Now, it is upto attendant to hand over it to his superior or throw that piece of paper into garbage bin. You are not given any proof of complaint / feed back hence, you can not make any queries about it. more
Oct 25
