You can now book your pizza or pasta through Internet before boarding a train and food will be delivered at your seat during the journey.
Much to the delight of train passengers, the Railway Ministry has decided to launch a pilot project of booking meals through Internet in select trains on Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Amritsar route.
“We are trying to provide a variety of meals to passengers during train journey and for this we will soon be having an arrangement with some popular food chains,” said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
As per the proposal, a passenger will be offered to book his meal by giving his name, coach and berth number of the train on an Internet booking site and the food will be delivered at his seat at a particular station.
“There will be choices like biryani, pizza, pasta, burger and sandwiches among others which are otherwise not available in pantry cars of trains. Some reputed food outlets will be roped in to cater to the demands of passengers,” said the official, adding “payment will be made after delivery of food”.
However, the official clarified that the service is not meant for Rajdhanis, Durontos and Shatabdis because the fares include the food served in these trains.
A meeting was held at Rail Bhawan last week with officials of CRIS and IRCTC to explore the possibility of booking meals through Internet.
It was decided at the meeting that a pilot project for booking meals through Internet would be launched on a few selected trains on Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Amritsar routes to begin with, said the official.
The official further said that a decision will be taken shortly whether to create a new site or to provide a separate link on the existing ticket booking site of the IRCTC for it.
A supplier agency will also be selected for providing delivery service on trains through a bidding process.
Currently, about 10 lakh passengers avail themselves of the catering facility daily at stations and trains, while 302 Mail and Express trains have pantry cars.