New rail catering policy to separate cooking, distribution

Railways will on Monday announce a new policy for its catering services which shall separate the functioning of its cooking and food distribution onboard.

The new catering policy to be announced by Railway minister Suresh Prabhu envisages fulfilling aspirations of public regarding healthy and hygienic food as it was flooded with complaints against food quality.

While the food will be prepared at the state-of-the-art base kitchens, it would be distributed through service providers from hospitality industry, according to the new policy which aims to attract reputed food-chain players from the market.

The new policy replacing the seven-year-old one gives back the IRCTC, a railways PSU, onboard catering responsibility for majority of trains including all the new ones.

The Railways PSU was relieved from the responsibility through the current policy effected by the then Railway minister Mamata Banerjee in 2010.