Whoa! Now You Can’t Be Overcharged At Railways! Indian Railways Revealed Rate List On Twitter

Under the leadership of Suresh Prabhu, Indian Railways is trying its best to provide passengers with good services and facilities. One of the biggest problems that a passenger faces while travelling in a train is concerned with food items. Most of the times, food is not of good quality or overpriced; in fact, vendors charge more for bottled water, tea and coffee too.

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Indian Railways issued their rate list in order to give the passengers a clear picture after many passengers registered their complaints regarding the food and drink items.

Ministry of Railways‏ took to Twitter to post their rate list and also asked people to file a complaint on being overcharged by a vendor. The tweet reads, “Know  the rate list of @IRCATERING  in case of any discrepancies  must reported to @RailMinIndia: We work for you 24×7 #Awareness”

Many angry passengers have filed complaints about catering services on Twitter and other portals available for grievance redressal. The private vendors who provide food and catering services to the passengers are appointed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) which has the fourth largest rail network in the world.

As per the contract, the selected vendor has to provide food and services at the rates which are fixed by IRCTC. What’s more, it has to show the menu card and provide hygienic food to the passenger. However, most of the times, it has been found that passengers do not get the value for their money and the quality is not up to the mark.

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The Indian Railways minister Suresh Prabhu got all the catering contracts reviewed in 2015 and also instructed that the companies which are running operations using unethical and corrupt means should be blacklisted.

In fact, Suresh and his team came up with new catering policy in February this year. As per the policy, both the functions of production and distribution will be separated. High number of complaints regarding food quality is a matter of concern for the department and this separation may help in making sure that food served on trains is healthy and of good quality.

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Attempts are being made by railways to involve brand names of hotel industry in PPC mode for setting up base kitchens at major stations while IRCTC will be distributing the food. Railways used to distribute food earlier too, before former railway minister Mamata Banerjee ordered it to stop performing this duty in 2010.

The new policy also aims to encourage e-catering activities through which a passenger will be able to book meals from a caterer who is in the panel of IRCTC. At present, 40 stations are equipped with the e-catering service while efforts are being made to cover some more stations within few months.

Great news for passengers, isn’t it? What do you have to say with regard to this? Share your views in the comments section below.

All Images Are Used For Representational Purpose Only

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