Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will soon resume its e-catering services in phase-wise manner for the passengers travelling in the currently operating special trains.
The e-catering services were suspended due to onset of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic declared by the ‘World Health Organisation’ and consequent unprecedented lockdown. E-Catering Services was suspended on 22nd March, 2020. However, with the gradual resumption of passenger train services and amidst the new normal wherein IRCTC is serving only ‘Ready To Eat’ meals to passengers on trains, there has been an increased demand for resumption of E-catering services.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had started this unique service in the year 2014 whereby passengers could order an array of food of their choice from reputed brands as well as popular regional and local delicacies on phone or online while traveling on trains and get the same delivered to their seats at railway stations. During the pre-COVID period, IRCTC had started clocking 20000 e-catering orders per day.
The Indian Railways has achieved a number of milestones regarding fulfilling the vision of the Prime Minister including the launch of the new user interface of the internet ticketing website www.irctc.co.in and addition of new real time feature in IRCTC’s own payment gateway i-Pay during booking of tickets.
The initiatives were introduced on the lines of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Digital India’ under the leadership of Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal.
The company is starting the first phase of E-catering services from February, 2021 wherein the service shall commence over thirty numbers of Railway Stations catering to approximately 250 trains.
