Train passengers will now find it easier to make online payments for food ordered through e-catering with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) entering into a tie-up with Paytm, a payment and e-commerce shopping website of the country. 

“We have roped in Paytm to give passengers maximum options for making online payments. Efforts are also underway to bring in more reputed caterers in our e-catering portfolio,” said Dr. A K Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, in a release.

Travelling passengers have an array of choices for making payments for e-catering such as pre-paid (online payment) or Cash on Delivery (CoD) as per their convenience. “Our tie-up with Paytm will provide an additional payment gateway for food of their choice. In the new age, we have to offer passengers not just novel food options but also more convenient payment methods. The arrangement with Paytm is an effort in that direction,” he said.

IRCTC, a ‘mini Ratna’ PSU of the Indian Railways, on an average clocks 5.5 to 6 lakh e-ticketing bookings daily. “We send an e-mail to travelling passengers a day in advance to know whether they would like to avail of our e-catering facility. Food can also be ordered on our website while booking reservations,” he said.  

For its e-catering facility, now known as ‘Food on Track’, IRCTC has tied up with online delivery firm Food Panda, enabling consumers to order from a variety of cuisine options. “We are in talks with several other reputed catering companies and fast food giants such as McDonald’s, Bikanerwala, Nirula’s, Sagar Ratna, Wang’s Kitchen, Sarvana Bhavan, and Bittu Tikki Wala,” he said.

IRCTC is also trying to empanel food aggregators including Subway and Pizza Hut to expand the catering choices for passengers. It has started website integration with Domino’s Pizza for seamless ordering by rail travellers. Food Panda, which is already empanelled, will soon be visible on the IRCTC’s website.

Currently, IRCTC provides e-catering facility in 1,516 trains without pantry cars. In addition, it provides station-based ‘Food On Track’ facility at 45 stations. These are Howrah, New Delhi, Chennai Central, Mumbai Central, Delhi, Bangalore City, Patna, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Madurai, Amritsar, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Kanpur Central, Allahabad, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur, Sealdah, Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri, Vishakhapatnam, Mughalsarai, Varanasi, Jaipur, Bilaspur, Kharagpur, Anand Vihar, H. Nizamuddin, Ludhiana, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Chennai Egmore, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thrisur, Yasvantpur, Nagpur, Pune, Agra Cantt, Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara. 

mamuni.das@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics