Indian Railways allows e-catering in train, Railrestro set to deliver food

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Indian Railways has allowed the e-catering services to resume in the trains. They will now be permitted to resume functions depending upon the feasibility, availability of staff and local restrictions.

Food delivery on trains will be permitted at select stations across the nation, subject to the service providers following the operation instructions issued by the local governing authorities. This announcement has come after Manish Chandra, CEO and Founder, RailRestro, had written to the Ministry of Railways and IRCTC officials to allow the e-catering services in the trains.

RailRestro, an IRCTC-authorized e-catering wing, has received confirmation from the Ministry of Railways and is set to operate from the last week of January 2021. "All the restaurant partners have been asked to ensure hygienic and contactless deliveries," said Kriti Raj, Public Relations Manager at RailRestro.

The company has laid down strict guidelines which include thermal scanning of the restaurant's staff and delivery personnel several times during the operational hours, sanitization of kitchens daily at regular intervals, use of protective face masks or face shields by restaurant staff and delivery personnel and permission to prepare food only if the body temperature is below 99oF.

The guidelines for their delivery staff are also laid-down well and are followed religiously. These include collecting orders only after washing hands, mandatory use of 'Aarogya Setu' app by delivery personnel, contactless delivery to ensure zero human contact, constant use of protective face masks or covers and sanitization of delivery bags after each delivery.

"Due to lockdown, the e-catering industry has been affected for the last several months, as safety has been our priority as a nation. As the trains have started operating now and nationwide restaurants have been allowed to reopen by the government, we now also need to focus on e-catering for the convenience and safety of railway passengers. All of our restaurants have been sent safety measurement guidelines for hygienic food preparation and zero-contact food deliveries to ensure healthy and safe food on the train. We look forward to serving the passengers again by the end of January," said Manish Chandra, Founder and CEO, Rail Restro.

RailRestro has more than 2000 affiliated restaurants across the country to deliver healthy, hygienic, and fresh food. Till date, RailRestro has served more than 50 lakh meals on the trains. The company has always been very strict with healthy and hygienic food deliveries. A unique feature of their service is that they provide authentic local cuisine to the passengers depending on the state they are in. It helps passengers taste delicacies from across the country while travelling. The passengers can order food on trains directly from RailRestro website or app in almost all of the trains run and operated by the Indian Railways.

The organisation is a part of the Yescom group headquartered in Patna which has its other ventures in the fields of digital media dn IT. E-catering services had been temporarily stopped for the last ten months ever since the government imposed the pandemic-induced lockdown in the first phase. During their downtime, they have been doing a lot of communication and conferences with their restaurant partners to ensure pure and fresh contactless food deliveries in the trains.

The e-catering resumption will undoubtedly add a great relaxation for Indian Railways passengers as they can easily order their food en-route without fear of contamination and have it delivered at their seats.

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