Improving Food Quality in Railways - Solutions
Dear Friends,
Based on your inputs, here is a summary of the key solutions required to improve food quality in Railways.
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 Supervisor's name and contact number are to be displayed in each bogie
6. The serving boys should necessarily wear a clean uniform and identity cards
7. Pantry boys should be trained on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness
8. CCTV should be installed in the pantry cars
9. The unauthorised vendors should not be allowed to enter the platforms
10. Regular surprise quality checks of the pantry should be done by senior officials
11. High penalty should be imposed on defaulter contractors
12. Contracts should be given to big and established vendors
13. An effective feedback mechanism should be set up
14. Railway officer must take action on any complaint within specified period of time
15. Pantry coach should be redesigned with modern facilities and amenities
16. Engaging Local Self Help Groups or NGOs for food outsourcing can improve the situation
Please add if you have anything additional. We will soon be putting together a whitepaper for submission to the Railways Ministry on the subject for action.
Thanks for your participation!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta more
Based on your inputs, here is a summary of the key solutions required to improve food quality in Railways.
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 Supervisor's name and contact number are to be displayed in each bogie
6. The serving boys should necessarily wear a clean uniform and identity cards
7. Pantry boys should be trained on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness
8. CCTV should be installed in the pantry cars
9. The unauthorised vendors should not be allowed to enter the platforms
10. Regular surprise quality checks of the pantry should be done by senior officials
11. High penalty should be imposed on defaulter contractors
12. Contracts should be given to big and established vendors
13. An effective feedback mechanism should be set up
14. Railway officer must take action on any complaint within specified period of time
15. Pantry coach should be redesigned with modern facilities and amenities
16. Engaging Local Self Help Groups or NGOs for food outsourcing can improve the situation
Please add if you have anything additional. We will soon be putting together a whitepaper for submission to the Railways Ministry on the subject for action.
Thanks for your participation!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta more
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Recently traveled by Rajdhani express (Hazrat Nizamuddin ->Trivandrum). The food quality has come down considerably. The catering was handled by Meals on Wheels. Not upto the mark at all. more
Sep 13
I have given my views earlier. I would emphasise on one fact again. The IRCTC people, who are in charge of serving food to passengers, are actually fearless. They know that they can serve anything and take any amount of money, and nothing will happen to them. A system needs to be created, in which they will have the fear of losing their job. This can only be done by engaging a group of high level officials, with sufficient power, who will carry out surprise checking as a general passenger, and based on the results they would take immediate strong action against the contractor/staff. If it is started in a few trains, and the message goes all over India, it will not take much time to get the whole system rectified. Otherwise, whatever systems are created, nothing will work without an instant punishing mechanism. more
Sep 13
Dear Brother, This all thing is already in existance in Indian Railway System. However the passenger in Railway are from different social and demographic backgrounds so it is difficult to maintain the previledge provided by the Railway administration. Railway is not only commercial organisation it is shouldering so many social liabilities costiong about 16000 Crores per year. Railway never forbids Volunteer Organisation for self help to pasengers but they should come forward clean handed without any expectation from Railway. They can approach Sr. Divisional Commercial Manager of any Division of Railway for this purpose. (Santosh Kumar Pandey) From: Rajendra Pratap Gupta Sent: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:29:33 To: skp.76@rediffmail.com Subject: New resource "Improving Food Quality in" in [Make Railways Better] more
Sep 10
Railways can do it better on their own. I remember my journey from Mumbai to Rourkela in 2002 by Gyaneswari. The food from pantry by IRCTC was so good that I ordered extra food to carry it home and enjoyed with my family members. So, why so bad now? Can it not be improved? more
Sep 05
There should be an online system for feedback on food quality where the passengers can go and give their feedback honestly as in many instances if we demand for complaint book the authorized person does not provide it and instead of that he offers some bribe or good food. - The feedback system should have fixed fields such as train names with the pantry service provider and then fields on quality issues where in the passenger just need to check the boxes, this will help in cross checking the feedback of passengers and the senior official and will let one know whether the senior official has taken bribe or not, because through set of answers you can draw conclusion what exact consumer opinion is? - The system should be linked with one's irctc account so that one can log in and enter the feedback against the ticket on which one has travelled, apart from that there should be a general link to provide feedback for all those who donot have an e-ticket - Proper world class storage system (hot cases) to store already made foods as most of these are rusted or not working or filled with pests or cockroaches more
Sep 04
