Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation's (IRCTC) response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by CNBC-TV18 showed a 500% jump in food quality and hygiene-related complaints by passengers on Indian Railways between March 2022 and February 2024.
Even premium services like Vande Bharat, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, and Mail Express have been affected. The number of complaints increased to 6,948 between April 2023 and February 2024, compared to 1,192 at the end of March 2022.
The total number of catering complaints was 11,850 between April 2021 and February 2024. "IRCTC has issued 68 show cause notices, and three contracts were cancelled during January 2021-March 2024," the reply added.
According to a February 2024 Hindu Business Line report, IRCTC had 1,518 catering contracts. Despite thousands of complaints, only three of the contracts were terminated in the last three years.
"There is no proper mechanism to check if the food is edible for consumption or not. The second thing is that packed food items are prepared outside, so the base kitchen is not on platforms or inside the trains. Most trains are missing pantry cars nowadays. IRCTC is changing its policies so frequently that there is no proper system in place. Passengers are eating food that has already been cooked a long time back, and all this negligence is leading to poor quality. As per the rules, action has been mandated against contractors for quality and hygiene negligence, but nothing much is done," [Railway Expert] Anil Tiwari told CNBC-TV18.
CNBC-TV18 has sent questions to IRCTC and is awaiting a response.
The persistent issue of poor food quality in Indian Railways, as highlighted in a 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit report, is a matter of grave concern. The report revealed that the caterers for Indian Railways have consistently failed to protect the food served to passengers from flies, insects, dust, rats, and cockroaches.
"Railway Board and contractors have clubbed together for many years. The contract is supposed to go to bidders showing a turnover of over 100 crores. This is a collusion between bidders, IRCTC, and railways. A proper kitchen with running gas cylinders in pantry cars is absolutely mandatory, and so is checking food items daily. Food quality report is to be sent for testing to concerned bodies. Still, none of these rules are being followed. IRCTC has no control over food quality, and the action taken against violators is just to show it on paper," Harsha Shah, President of Railway Pravasi Group, said.
A similar trend is visible even on the Vande Bharat Trains, for which passengers pay a premium.
Data from April 2023- February 2024 suggests that a total of 123 complaints have been received regarding stale food and food items with dead insects, flies and cockroaches being served to passengers on Vande Bharat trains.
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