IRCTC: On complaints for bad food, Railway imposed a fine of Rs 2.75 crore

After complaints of poor quality of food in trains and railway establishments, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has imposed a fine of about Rs 2.75 crore on more than one thousand complaints till August 25. IRCTC provides catering services in more than 1,250 trains and over 500 establishments at railway stations in the country. As many as 16 lakh meals served on an average per day are served in India.

Rail Madad promotes continuous suggestions to improve the services of railway passengers. The passengers had given on Rail Madad the kind of need for questions, assistance, and complaints. Each suggestion is analyzed and corrective and punitive action will be taken according to the severity of the cases.

According to Patrika, the presence of IRCTC officials in all premium trains has been ensured from start to end during the journey so that questions/assistance needs/complaints can be resolved in real-time. Apart from this, some additional steps have been taken recently to improve catering services on trains.

IRCTC has completed the task of allocation of catering services to more than 100 train clusters by 15th August 2024 and over 150 base kitchens have been set up. These base kitchens, fully equipped with the latest equipment ensure the quality of catering services in trains. The list of reputed national brands approved across the country to serve branded food items in Vande Bharat trains has been finalized. An agreement will be signed with the Indian Culinary Institute to ensure that there is standardization of cooking processes and ingredients.

In over 1,000 cases, IRCTC has fined 25,000 rupees each between 1 April and 25 August. In 20 cases, the fine has been one lakh rupees or above. In this way, in over 1000 cases, a fine of over two and a half crore rupees has been imposed, while fines of over twenty lakh rupees have been imposed in 20 cases. This is around three and a quarter crore rupees in all.