Vyasa: literally means the one who spreads the information. Knowledge is all around us and Vyasa is the one who compiles & records it.
I used the Analogy to present how I had to change different hats while writing this post. At one moment, I was a Blogger, while at some, I simply was a Vyasa compiling & recording the information!!
There were quite a few conflicting thoughts circling my mind while I had planned to write the post. My initial inclination was to highlight the “current plight” of the Catering in the Indian Railways. But as I started my research, i found myself engulfed with thoughts to understand the TANGENTIAL Relation of IR & IRCTC. And it became evident that to do a Comparison/Analysis, of where we were in terms of Food Quality before & after Sep 1999 (When IRCTC was formed), i need to take a walk through the times when the first seed to the inception of IRCTC was planted.
OK. You can easily find plenty of information on the IRCTC Catering, some vague dates when IRCTC started the Trial Projects. But you won’t find any information on the corresponding IR Circular’s to validate the writings.
Therefore today I intend to find Facts around IR & IRCTC…!! in a pursuit to corroborate the information on Internet with the corresponding circular’s!!
Few Questions that became the laying foundation of my post were –
- How is IRCTC different than IR?
- When was IRCTC founded? Where can i find any IR Circulars that can validate the timelines?
- How many Trial Runs happened before IRCTC came into effect?
- Which Railway Minister actually laid a foundation for having a Third Party Caterer available?
- What is the difference between the plight of Catering since IRCTC came into existence?
- And few more questions….
Let me start first by giving a Quick Insight on IR (Indian Railways) and its corelation with IRCTC.
“Indian Railways” & “IRCTC” (Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation)
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. 
(IRCTC) is a Public Sector Enterprise under Ministry of Railways. IRCTC was incorporated on 27th September, 1999 as an extended arm of the Indian Railways to upgrade, professionalize and manage the catering and hospitality services at stations, on trains and other locations and to promote domestic and international tourism through development of budget hotels, special tour packages, information & commercial publicity and global reservation systems.
Products that IRCTC has launched since its inception –
- Rail Neer / Rail Tour Packages & Internet Ticketing (Shown in the Pic below)
IRCTC Inception Idea
Way back in 1979, then Railway Minister, Madhu Dandavate, announced that the Ministry would examine the suggestion of MPs and others to set up a railway catering corporation.
IRCTC was later set up in 2000 after a Cabinet decision to hive off catering of the Indian Railways to a proposed corporation. Initially the menu’s & tariffs were controlled by the Railway Ministry.
- IRCTC’s Chairman is also the Member of Railway Board.
- Around 21st Dec 2005 most of the catering operations were transferred to IRCTC.
Timeline Tracking – It was difficult, believe me!!
Next, now let’s understand, by Timeline Tracking how “IRCTC’s- Catering” started to cement its place!!
Date:Sept 19th 2000/Circular No.55 by Indian Railway
Quotes from Circular– “Ministry of Railways, with a view improve system of monitoring the catering services on Indian Railways have examined the matter of annual performance appraisal of catering licenses managing pantry cars, refreshment rooms, fast food centers, food marts etc.”
Date:Oct 20th 2000/Circular No.58 by Indian Railway
Quotes from Circular– “Ministry of Railways, during the budget speech 1999-2000 had announced that with a view to bring transparency and competitiveness in catering contracts for major units, a two packet tender system would be introduced. Ministry of Railways has therefore reviewed the existing Catering Policy – 1992 & new policy guidelines have been framed”
Date: Oct 5th 2004/Circular No.36 of 2004 by Indian Railway
Quotes from Circular– “The Catering Policy dated: 20th October 2000 was amended twice & correction slips were issued accordingly. In addition administrative instructions were issued from time to time in regard to handing over of major & new catering/vending units to IRCTC. However, in order to bring transparency & competitiveness in catering contracts for major units as defined in para 14.1 & for small units as defined in 15.1(a) a two packet tender system has been introduced along with review of tenure of contracts with a view to bring about tangible improvement in catering services, which constitute a major segment of our customer interface, & a revised Catering Policy on catering has been framed, which along with other circulars/guidelines mentioned in the revised policy supersede all the existing policy guidelines issued from time to time. The Catering Policy 2004 is enclosed.
IRCTC will follow the overall policy guidelines with reference to class of stations, definitions of major & minor units, provision of pantry car…etc. It is advised that as and when the Catering Services are taken over by IRCTC, the functions relating to catering hitherto performed by the Zonal railways would be performed by IRCTC at appropriate levels.
Date: March 16th 2005/Circular No.8 of 2005 by Indian Railway
Quotes from Circular– “During the implementation of Catering Policy dated 5th Oct 2004 some practical problems were faced and representations were received from various corners to bring about changes in the Catering Policy 2004. Subsequently Hon’ble Minister for Railways made some announcements on the floor of Parliament addressing these issues.
In consideration of genuine demands and subsequent announcements of Hon’ble MR in order to fulfill the social obligations of the Govt of India, the existing Catering Policy 2004 has been reviewed by Railways Board and a new Catering Policy 2005 has been formulated in super-session of all the existing policy guidelines and administrative instructions issues from time to time.
IRCTC will follow the overall Policy guidelines with reference to class of station etc..It is advised that as and when the catering services are taken over by IRCTC, the functions relating to catering hitherto performed by the zonal railways would be performed by IRCTC.
Date: Dec 21st 2005/Circular No.56 of 2005 by Indian Railway 
Quotes from Circular– “Revised Catering Policy, 2005: Amendments have been carried out in the Catering Policy 2005 to modernize the catering services and accordingly revised Catering Policy is issued.
In the revised Policy there is emphasis on quality of services, which should be given greater stress by all concerned.
For static major units (excluding AVMs, food plazas, new units) and unreserved minor units, the licensee should be selected by open competitive 2-packet tender in the following order by IRCTC.
The revised Catering Policy is enclosed herewith for further necessary actions and implementation. The revised Catering Policy will come into effect immediately. 
Date: Sept. 16th 2015/Circular No.57 of 2015 by Indian Railways 
Sub: “Instruction for Implementation of Station Based E-Catering on IR
Quotes from Circular– “In compliance of the Budget Announcement 2015-16, IR launched a pilot project on “E-Catering” with IRCTC with the objective to facilitate passengers to book meal of their choice. The pilot project has been extended from time to time to cover more number of trains on Indian Railways. Based on the response/feedback received from the passengers and the need to ensure provision of catering services to traveling passengers, it has been decided to proliferate this scheme on Stations so that passengers are able to get per-ordered meals of their choice at Stations.
In the first phase, a pilot project is to be undertaken by IRCTC to start E-Catering services on 45 number of major stations i.e. Howrah, Sealdah, Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Mughalsarai Jn., Kanpur Central, Lucknow Jn., Varanasi, Jaipur, Bilaspur, Kharagpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Anand Vihar Terminal, H. Nizamuddin, New Delhi, Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Vijaywada, Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Ernakulam Jn., Kozhikkode, Madurai Jn., Thrisur, Thiruvananthapuram Central , Bangalore City , Yasvantpur, Nagpur, Pune, Agra Cantt., Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Mumbai Central, Surat and Vadodara.
Based on the outcome of the pilot project, this scheme would accordingly be extended to cover more number of stations.
General Instructions
Station based E-Catering shall be only for Stations & not on moving trains.
Source Site for Downloading the Circulars
IRCTC E-Catering becomes – “Food on Track”
Spurred by a steady rise in the popularity of its e-catering, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) has branded the service with a new name ‘Food On Track’, as reported on Economic Times
“E-catering service has been started by IRCTC exclusively for passengers traveling in trains without pantry where passenger can book preferred meal through e-catering website as well as through phone and SMS also.
The website address is www.ecatering.irctc.co.in and phone numbers are 1323 and SMS MEAL to 139. “
Booking E-catering service through IRCTC website
Any passenger having valid confirmed reservation ticket may book the meal through website as well the phone. The process of booking is as under
- Passenger will enter the PNR. Stations list shall appear/display in drop down menu. Passenger may choose the station he/she wishes to book meal on. After which, vendor menu will open along with item prices.
- Passenger may choose the vendor and the meals to be booked.
- Prices of meal will be displayed with the meals.
- On confirmation of booking, e-payment for the transaction is to be made.
- On completion of transaction, SMS and email shall be generated and sent to the customer as well as the service provider.
- The SMS and email shall have the details of the order. The SMS content to passenger shall have an OTP (One Time Password) which will be used for verification by the service provider on the mobile application at the time of delivery of meal.
- In addition to the above SMS and email at the time of booking of meal, SMS and email shall again be forwarded to the passenger 02 hours before the scheduled delivery time at the station for convenience of customer. Further, an email shall also be sent to the passenger 24 hours before the scheduled delivery time at the station.
Note: Currently the services are available from 0600 hrs to 2200 hrs
With this my Quest to Really Understand the Catering aspect of IRCTC has come to a closure.
But I still need to figure out the response to the Query- “What is the difference between the plight of Catering since IRCTC came into existence?” as stated in the Founding Questions that laid the need to write the post!!
Hence In my next post, i will now like to explore the Quality Control that is being imposed at IRCTC while serving food to its consumers…!!
Kunal Contemplation's 
Tangential or diagonal(at cross roads), it is difficult to comprehend. A commuter like me travelling since childhood on long distance journeys have not found any difference in the kind of service, food taste or quality any time, pre or post IRCTC. The standards of all these have been amazingly maintained – shiity service, stale tastes and abysmally low quality throughout this period.
Good that someone has taken up the cause earnestly, I am sure that if you invite the experiences of more people including you, the reactions will be similar, but do so to make this reach to the ears of the concerned and especially the PM in the hope of turn around the things atleast now, because if it doesnot happen now, it will probably never.
Keep Blogging!!
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