IRCTC New Plan: According to the plan of IRCTC, food will be provided in trains like Gorakhdham Express, Humsafar Express, Kushinagar, LTT and Raptisagar from the cluster of Lucknow or Gorakhpur.
The arbitrariness of contractors regarding food in running trains will no longer be acceptable. IRCTC has made a plan of one route, one meal. Clusters will be formed for this. Lunch and dinner will be supplied in the trains of that route only from these clusters. For this, NER is preparing to create clusters in Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Lucknow.
According to IRCTC, Gorakhdham, Humsafar, Kushinagar, LTT and Raptisagar trains departing from Gorakhpur to Delhi, Mumbai or southern states will be provided food from the cluster at Lucknow or Gorakhpur. In between, neither the contractors will be able to offer food from anywhere nor will they be able to serve food to the passengers in their own way.
To start this system, IRCTC has sought information from the Railways about the average passenger traffic along with trains. Preparations will be made according to the number of trains and passengers.
On an average 50 thousand people travel every day
More than 50 thousand people travel through Gorakhpur Junction every day. There are about 20 to 25 thousand passengers who take catering service. Most of these passengers take food from the pantry car.
CRM IRCTC Ajit Kumar Sinha said, “IRCTC has made preparations to form clusters at three major stations in North Eastern Railway. These include Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Varanasi. A plan is being prepared to provide one food on one route. In this cluster “Food will be made available in trains. This will reduce passenger complaints to a great extent.”
Right now neither any standard nor quality is maintained: currently there are different contractors for catering in each train. Contractors pack and distribute the food as per their convenience. Due to this, neither the quality of the food remains intact nor it remains hot.
