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Railways to revamp, transform catering and other services

P. K. Bhardwaj

To match similar services on flights and to meet ISO standards

NEW DELHI: After the turnaround in the last three years, the Indian Railways have drawn an ambitious programme to revamp and transform their catering and other passenger services not only to turn them into major revenue earners but also equip these services with standards matching ISO 2000:2005 (Food Safety Management System) and ISO 2001:2005 (Quality Management System) certification norms. The catering on the rail will match similar services on the flights. Of course, the rail users would have to pay for it but there would be something suiting the pockets of all kind of rail users with high quality and hygienic standards, P. K. Goel, Managing Director of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Development Corporation (IRCTC), announced here.

Spelling out IRCTC's new vision and mantra as "QSCV — quality, services, cleanliness and value for money," Mr. Goel said it would take about a year to bring about complete transformation through a number of steps ranging from securing ISO certification, professional training for catering staff, base kitchens on the pattern of flight kitchens, on board and station hospitality services besides offering tourism packages at competitive rates suiting all segments. Food plazas, refreshment rooms, ATMs, kiosks and static catering units besides home delivery of tickets and budget hotels were all on the cards.

While public-private participation would be leveraged considerably, he said that high on the agenda was an effective complaint redress mechanism. Four call centres across the country would be set up soon with three digit numbers for all kind of information on railways, including its tourism packages besides handling and forwarding complaints.

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