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Indian Railways is preparing to give a new look to the food and drink experience of the passengers. Under the new catering policy, big food brands can soon open at the station. This is expected to provide passengers with more convenient, hygienic and reliable food options during their journey.
New Delhi. Indian Railways has made a major change in its catering policy, under which passengers will soon be able to find famous brands like KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Haldiram and Bikanerwala at the station. Along with the railway station redevelopment, preparations are also being made to give a new look to the food facilities, so that better food options can be made available at more than 1200 stations across the country. Especially the modern stations of big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad can be the first to take advantage of this change.
Allotment will be done through e-auction
Railway Board has made it clear that premium brand stalls will not be given on nomination basis under any circumstances. Now these outlets will be allotted only through e-auction. An operational tenure of five years has been fixed for each outlet. According to the new policy, outlets can be opened under single-brand and company-owned or franchised models, provided their demand and location at the station is justified. This will not affect the existing reservation policy, in which stall quota is reserved for SC, ST, OBC, freedom fighters and displaced persons.
Variety of food choices will increase at stations
Till now only three types of stalls – snacks, beverages, tea, milk bar and juice bar – were operating at railway stations. Now Railways has added ‘Premium Brand Catering Outlet’ as the fourth category. With this, passengers will be able to get clean, reliable and branded food options. More than 2.3 crore passengers travel by train every day, so the presence of the famous food chain at the station will prove to be a great convenience for the passengers.
You can get benefits first at stations with high footfall.
According to railway officials, there was a demand for branded food outlets at many stations for a long time. Now zonal railways will assess how much space is available at which station, how much footfall there is and how this scheme can be implemented. Along with this, they will prepare special conditions and contracts at their respective levels, so that the operation of premium outlets can start smoothly. This step is being considered important for the Railways in the direction of increasing the convenience of passengers and preparing a modern station.
