QUEEN'S ROAD:Indulging in a hot, delicious meal during a train journey is no longer wishful thinking for a good chunk of passengers, thanks to a novel initiative by the Bengaluru Division of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
The e-catering facility has been introduced since January 23 on four non-pantry trains in the South Western Railway Division: the Bangalore City-Kochuveli-Bangalore City Express (Train No. 16315/16316), Chamundi Express (Train No. 16215/16216), Mysore-Dadar-Mysore Express (Train No. 11035/11036) and Yeshwanthpur-Secunderabad Garib Rath Express (Train No. 12736).
Six stations in Karnataka now serve as delivery points for food orders: Bangalore City, Cantonment, Yeshwanthpur, Hubli, Mysuru and Davanagere.
“The catering service will be extended to many more trains and stations in the Karnataka Division if the response from the public is good,” says B Ramesh, Deputy General Manager, IRCTC, Bengaluru Region.
Ordering food on train is a simple process, he explains. “All one needs to do is respond to the pop-up box while booking an e-ticket on the IRCTC website.”
Simple queries pertaining to choice of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food, quantity and the station at which delivery is required need to be filled up. The bill is shown on screen and can be paid for along with the ticket, he informs. No extra charges are levied for the delivery.
An exclusive website (www.ecatering.irctc.co.in) has also been created for the same, in case you want to think and book the order a bit later. Orders can also be placed on phone by calling the new customer care number, 1800-1034-139. Food is supplied on trains between 6 am and 10 pm.
However, only those who hold confirmed online tickets can make orders for food. This would ensure that when the ticket is cancelled, the food order also stands cancelled. Waitlisted online ticket holders can visit the e-catering website when their ticket gets confirmed, or place orders over the phone.
Food orders can be placed during booking of an e-ticket or up to two hours before the arrival at the station where the order is to be delivered.
Passengers get an e-mail and SMS confirming the meal order along with a One Time Password (OTP), both at the time of booking the train ticket online as well as two hours before the delivery station approaches. The same details are sent to the service provider (catering outlet) as well. The delivery person provides the order at your seat only after confirming the OTP.
At present, only IRCTC restaurants are catering under the scheme. Private players will be considered in future once the teething troubles are crossed.
“When it happens, it could be a revenue churner for IRCTC as it plans to charge the service provider 12 per cent of the bill amount,” Ramesh said.
The Bangalore Division is even eyeing pizza chains to attract youngsters. Ramesh is confident of the project catching on in a big way.
Drawing inspiration from the stupendous success of the online ticket booking, he says, “When we launched IRCTC online booking a decade ago, only 65 tickets were booked all over India.
That figure has become seven lakh tickets per day now. This project will catch on like wildfire once passengers realise the convenience of getting quality food at their seat.”
Early birds
City-based techie Ishaq M Joseph and his mother were among the first to have booked their meals online.
Their order, a veg and a non-veg thali, was delivered at their seats at the City Railway Station on January 31, when they boarded the Kochuveli Express. As a celebratory gesture, catering officials threw in a sweet box with the order.
Ishaq noticed the new service on the IRCTC portal and decided to give it a shot. “It is good, very good,” he says.
The engineer was surprised to hear that he was the first to use the service. “Officials did a follow-up to ensure that everything was in place,” he said.