New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has now come up with a certificate of approval from the Delhi High Court to claim that it is providing satisfactory catering services on its air-conditioned trains.
The IRCTC has stated that a committee appointed by the Delhi High Court has “noted with satisfaction the improvements made in the catering services on the Indian Railways”.
According to the IRCTC, an interested party had petitioned the court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) complaining of poor quality of food and other services on the Garib Rath and other major air-conditioned trains.
Following this, the court appointed a committee to go into the complaint and, on the basis of its report, dismissed the petition concerning quality of food, beverages and catering on the recently started Patna Garib Rath, launched by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad as an affordable AC train, stating that the corporation had already taken action.
The committee nominated by the court acknowledged the improvements made in the licensees’ base kitchens, said IRCTC.
Additionally the IRCTC has also appointed noted market research company IMRB to professionally assess customer satisfaction, it said.
It looked into the quality and quantity of food and beverage including its taste, hygiene level and presentation; quality of service including courtesy of the staff, punctuality and their communication skills; quality of bedrolls and its services, their cleaning, hygiene and paper packing.
The IMRB, said IRCTC, reported that 65 percent passengers of Nizamiuddin-Chennai Rajdhani Express, 85 percent in Secunderbad-Nizamuddin Rajdhani- 85 percent in Madurai-Nizamuddin TN Sampark Kranti Express; 62 percent in New Delhi-Hyderabad AP Express- and 45 percent for Gujarat Sampark Kranti Express have rated the services to be between good and excellent.
The IRCTC claimed it has appointed 57 trained professional quality inspectors from the hospitality sector to continuously monitor and improve the quality of catering on Indian Railways.