JOIN USThe Railways will have more modern kitchens and water purifying plants to cater to the needs of passengers. Modern kitchens are being planned for Chennai and Kolkata, in addition to one currently in operation at Noida near Delhi.
A water purifying plant will also start functioning next year at Ambernath in Mumbai and six more will come up later.
“It has been a challenge for us to provide passengers with hygienic, hot and healthy food.
To meet this challenge, we started a central kitchen at Noida, which has state-of-the-art technology to prepare 25,000 meals a day. The next will come up in Chennai. Another one will come up in Kolkata later,” says Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) spokesperson Pradip Kundu.
The central kitchen at Noida has automated machines, where all statutory compliances are adhered to in producing food items.
Medical tests for the food-handlers and microbiological tests of food samples are done.
The kitchen uses brand raw material and ingredients to ensure high quality products.
The kitchen also maintains to the HACCP/ISO 22000(Hazard Analysis Critical Analysis Critical Control Points) standards and has in-house state-of-the-art and R&D facilities.
“With its hygienic food of stringent standards, it will be in line with the major airline catering units,” says Kundu.
More plants
To increase its supply of packaged drinking water, Rail Neer, at stations and in trains, the IRCTC will soon have one more bottling plant at Ambernath near Mumbai with a capacity of two lakh bottles a day.
At the moment, the cumulative production capacity is 3.8 lakh bottles a day with plants at three locations-Nangloi (Delhi), Danapur (Bihar) and Palur( near Chennai).