IRCTC plans to serve regional delicacies at railway stations

Buoyed by the success of janata meal served at railway stations across the country, IRCTC is now planning to serve regional delicacies on a similar scale catering to local tastes.

“Like puri-sabzi, we are also planning to serve delicacies like idli-vada in South, luchi-sabzi in East and items made of besan in Rajasthan,” said IRCTC managing director Rakesh Tandon. However, the prices of such delicacies have not been worked out as yet, he said.

Poori-sabzi are available at Rs 10 per packet and IRCTC is selling over 70,000 to 80,000 such packets per day. The packet contains seven pooris and aloo sabzi, besides pickles.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had suggested introduction of janata meal at cheaper rates at stations which people from different sections of the society can buy. Asked about incidents of over-charging of such packets, he said offenders will be penalised with a fine of Rs 20,000 if they resort to such practices.

Tandon said they are also introducing new technologies on the catering front to provide quality food to passengers and a pilot scheme is being run on a few Rajdhani trains.