Under e-catering services of the national transporter, the supply of cooked food to passengers in trains will resume soon in the Eastern Railway zone. The practice of supplying cooked food to railway passengers was suspended as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. An Eastern Railway spokesperson was quoted in a PTI report saying that the e-catering services of Indian Railways will be restarted soon at Kolkata, Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol, Malda, Durgapur and Bhagalpur railway stations under the jurisdiction of the ER zone. Besides, according to the ER spokesperson, Indian Railways is also planning to add Barddhaman, Jamalpur and Bolpur in the railway stations’ list from where the e-catering services are provided.
According to the Eastern Railway spokesperson, with the resumption of several long distance as well as special train services, there was a growing demand of railway passengers to resume the catering services for supplying hot, healthy and hygienic meals in the trains by nominated vendors of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The Railway Board has permitted IRCTC to resume the catering services at selected railway stations, he said. The catering services will be provided by IRCTC in strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols, he further said.
Under the e-catering facility of the national transporter, services are provided by a large number of food aggregators empanelled by IRCTC, the Eastern Railway spokesperson said. The services of supplying food are also made available from outlets at selected railway stations, the ER official added.
Recently, the Railway Ministry said that the number of passenger trains is being increased constantly in a graded manner. According to the Railway Ministry, full restoration of regular passenger trains to pre-pandemic times is to be considered, considering a range of factors as well as operational circumstances. Due to novel coronavirus outbreak, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways had to stop running regular passenger train services on 22 March 2020.