NEW DELHI: To reduce the hardships of the mothers travelling with their infants, Railways launched the service to provide hot milk, hot water and baby food at 25 stations.
Under the ‘Janani Sewa’, the facility is being introduced at over 25 stations including New Delhi, Mumbai CSTM, Mumbai Central, Howrah, Chennai Central, Nagpur, Pune, Surat, Lucknow and Moradabad among others.
"We are introducing Janani Sewa to make mothers happy," Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said after launching the scheme here. He said the initiative was taken after a complaint of a mother about the absence of milk at rail premises.
"Once a mother had tweeted about milk unavailability in the train and taking note of her complaint on the social networking site, we had ensured milk at that train," he said.
In another initiative, IRCTC has included Children’s menu items, meal combos for children in 5-12 yrs age group, on trains passing through New Delhi, Howrah, Chennai Egmore and CSTM Mumbai Stations through e-catering and also through purchase across the counter.
These items can be ordered by the passengers through e-catering website of IRCTC, a specified phone number, SMS, Mobile Apps and a four digit (1323) all India Toll Free Number.
Prabhu said "we have taken steps to fulfill all our budget promises. While many have been implemented, the rest are at various stages of implementation."
Announced in railway Budget, Railways also launched optional catering services in two pair of trains Hazrat Nizamuddin to Mumbai Central August Kranti Rajdhani Express and Pune to Secunderabad Shatabdi Express.
Optional Catering Service will be provided on trial basis to passengers from June 9 for journeys to commence on the opening day of advance reservation period (120 days). Duration of trial is for 45 days.
Catering services will be included by default. Passengers have to specifically ‘opt out’ from the mandatory food option. Catering apportionment charges will be excluded from the total ticket fare accordingly.