Railways Ministry to resume cooked food services for long route passengers

NEW DELHI: With the sharp decline in COVID-19 cases in the country and the trains services coming back on tracks in normal courses after a long gap, the Ministry of Railways has decided to resume the cooked food services under the catering services for the passengers in the long routes trains without hampering service of providing the Ready-to-Eat (RE) food.

 A few days after removing the tags of special from more than 1700 trains, the railway ministry on Friday issued a direction to the CMD of IRCTC at New Delhi to resume serving cooked food under the catering services in trains in addition to continuation of ready-to-eat food services.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Indian Railways (IR) had temporarily suspended the cooked foods service in the trains. In recent few months back, the demands for resuming the catering services were made from across the country by passengers.

Considering the passengers demands, the railway ministry directed the IRCTC, which handles the services related to foods also in railways, to resume this service.

"In view of the normalcy of trains services, the requirement of travelling passengers and relaxations being provided in the COVID-19 lockdown in the restaurants, hotels and  such other  places across the country. It has been decided by the Ministry of Railways to resume the services of cooked foods in trains," the Ministry of Railways through letter has stated clearly.

According to a conservative estimate, the cooked foods services will be started in more than 350 trains of long routes. Sources also said that the railway may soon also resume the bed roll services in selected premier trains including the Rajdhani and others like earlier.