The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has decided to outsource catering operations for the Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18 in an effort to improve the quality of food served to the passengers.
An IRCTC official told that “We have tied up with a hotel in Kanpur and dinner will be loaded there. Dinner will be served from Kanpur onwards for people coming from Varanasi and going towards New Delhi. For the journey between New Delhi and Varanasi, we will provide lunch at Allahabad. The food outlet for this has not been finalised but it will surely be of a good brand”.
It must be noted that the IRCTC is a subsidiary of Indian Railways and manages catering, tourism and online ticketing operations.
The official further said that the food will be packaged in such a way that it will remain hot till it is served. The serving staff on the train will be trained to be polite to the passengers and offer hand sanitisers before meals.
The official said, “For breakfast in the morning, we will not give the regular Indian Railway breakfast of bread and cutlet instead there will be muffins, patties and donuts for the passengers”.
The Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express will complete its trip in around eight hours, during which passengers will be offered a snack, breakfast and lunch. During a trial run late last year, Train 18 has become country’s fastest train when it hit a speed of 180 kmph.
There are two classes of tickets in Train 18 - executive class and chair car that includes catering charges along with the goods and services tax (GST). A senior Indian Railway official told that a person travelling from New Delhi to Varanasi by executive class will have to spend Rs 3,310 while chair car will cost Rs 1,760.
The official added that an executive class ticket from Allahabad to Varanasi will charge Rs 905 and a chair car ticket on the same route will cost Rs 460.
The best thing about the train is that it has rotating seats, which can be moved in the direction of travel in the executive class. Moreover, it has toilets with a bio-vacuum system, sliding doors in coaches and modular luggage racks with a glass bottom.
Another official said, “We are trying to give travelers a world-class experience on this ‘Make in India’ train. From cleanliness to food, everything has been planned very carefully to enhance passenger’s experience”.
After the successful trial run of the first Train 18 in 2018, government is planning to introduce more such trains on different routes. The possible routes will be Kolkata-Patna, Bengaluru-Hyderabad and Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
