Food On Track: Passengers Book Nearly 42,000 Meals Online Per Day On Trains

Promoting Digital India initiative in a big way, Indian Railways is supplying an average number of 41,844 meals per day through E-catering.

Digital method of transactions for purchase of food items through catering units at railway stations is being encouraged and 8,878 static catering units are having the facility of digital payment.

In addition to this, facilitating train travellers, handheld PoS (point of sale) machines are being provided at catering units to generate printed bills and invoices reflecting all details of transactions undertaken and to address the complaints of overcharging.

At present, 3,081 PoS machines are available on 596 trains and 4,316 static catering units have been provided with PoS machines.

For widening the range of options available to passengers in trains, E-catering services have been introduced on Indian Railways. E-catering services are managed by IRCTC.

Passengers can pre-order meals of their choice at the time of booking of e-ticket or while travelling on train using app/call centre/website/by calling 1323.

E-catering service is currently available at 310 stations through 1,755 service providers and 14 food aggregators, supplying an average number of 41,844 meals per day.

Passengers on long distance or overnight journeys book meals online. While ticket prices of Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat and Tejas services include catering facility, passengers of all trains including Mail/Express are free to avail e-catering.

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