Cloud Kitchens Begin To Replace Base Kitchens For Supplying Food On Long-Distance Trains

Do what it may, the Indian Railways, through its extended arm Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), under the Ministry of Railways, could not match up to the expectations of rail passengers regarding food served by it on long-distance trains. Complaints regarding poor hygiene and quality of food served refused to die down.

So, the IRCTC has now thought out a new plan to revamp its entire food delivery system on long-distance trains by switching from base kitchens to the modern concept of ‘cloud kitchens’, which, under strict hygiene and quality standards fixed by it, are being authorised to prepare and deliver food on these trains.

Cloud kitchens are like delivery-only restaurants without dining areas. They operate behind the scenes and out of sight. The food is prepared in production kitchens from which it is collected by drivers and taken to customers.

Mumbai is among the first places to have made the switch already, with cloud kitchens supplying food packets pantries on long-distance trains since almost a month.

Various news reports have quoted senior IRCTC officials as stating that the cloud kitchens will be operated on a seven-year contract by different professionals and caterers. Their kitchens will be required to be equipped with latest systems for production and delivery and will be covered by CCTVs. Cleanliness and hygiene will be closely monitored.

The private operators running the kitchens would be responsible for delivering the food packets/plates to the pantry cars of long-distance trains in cold storage vans.

While 50-odd cloud kitchens have already started providing the services in Mumbai and some other areas, the officials inform that at least 200 such kitchens are in the pipeline in IRCTC’s west zone, covering Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

For the past several years, Indian Railways has been producing thousands of food plates for long-distance trains, including premium ones such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Tejas Express. More recently, the base kitchens were also supplying meals to Vande Bharat trains.

The IRCTC officials confided that despite imposing hefty fines and terminating contracts of those failing to maintain hygiene in the preparation and delivery of food on trains, the complaints of poor-quality food kept pouring in, some of them of very serious nature like foreign objects, cockroaches, insects, etc being found in the food.

Expressing confidence that the revamped system will make a positive change, the IRCTC officials claimed that wherever it has already started, complaints about food quality have dropped considerably.

Will it make a real difference, only time will tell! Till then hoping for the best!