IRCTC To Resume Hot Cooked Meals On Eastern Railway Trains Soon: Report

IRCTC, which provides ticketing, catering, and tourism services to the Indian Railways, will soon resume cooked food supply to passengers in trains in the Eastern Railway zone, an official told PTI on Sunday.

Catering services had been suspended after the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to the PTI report quoting the unnamed official, e-catering services will be restarted soon at Howrah, Sealdah, Kolkata, Durgapur, Asansol, Malda, and Bhagalpur stations under Eastern Railway.

The official added that there are plans to add Barddhaman, Bolpur, and Jamalpur to the list of stations from where the e-catering services are provided.

There was a growing demand to resume the supply of "hot, healthy and hygienic food to passengers in the trains" by nominated vendors of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), with the resumption of several long-distance and special trains, he said.

The Railway Board has allowed IRCTC to resume the services at some stations, he said, adding that this will be done with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols.

Under e-catering, services are provided by a large number of food aggregators empanelled by IRCTC, he said.

The food is also supplied from outlets at designated stations, the official said.