The Railways has snatched away the entire task of catering for its trains from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector enterprise and decided to do the job itself. This significant decision was unveiled by the Railways new catering policy which was announced here on Thursday.
The policy had been in the offing for some time in the wake of railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s Railway Budget announcement that a comprehensive policy for catering would be worked out. With the new catering policy, Ms Banerjee has also overturned yet another step that was taken during her predecessor, RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s tenure.
While the objective of handling mobile catering work departmentally rather than through IRCTC is being touted as a way to improve the quality and hygiene of food provided on board trains, many in Rail Bhawan are attributing another reason for the new policy. With Assembly elections in West Bengal less than a year away, the catering take-over by the department is also being seen as one that will help Ms Banerjee who is also Trinamul Congress chief provide jobs to many in the Railways.
On a more positive note, however, the new policy is expected to break the cartel of private caterers supplying food for trains as the zonal services will be exercising considerable control over the catering services. As per the new policy, the contracts for all major and minor catering units will be awarded by the zonal railways with the new policy calling for an “effective and transparent contract awarding, management and monitoring system.”
The policy also says that priority should be given to Rajdhanis and Durontos for attaching pantry cars to them, with long distance premier, superfast trains and mail and express trains undertaking a journey longer than 24-hours being given second and third preference, respectively.