Railways strips IRCTC of power to set up food joints at railway stations

New Delhi | Jagran Business Desk: The Railway Board on Saturday gave the responsibility of setting up major commercial units on Railway Stations, such as food plazas, fast food units and restaurants to respective zonal railways. Earlier, the IRCTC, tourism and catering arm of Indian Railways, was given the task to set up these food-related establishments.

According to an official order, many spaces allotted to the IRCTC continued to remain vacant. Following which, it was decided to give the responsibility to respective Zonal railways.

The vacant spaces were reportedly leading to non-provision of passenger service and massive loss of railway revenue, as per the official order. Hence, various railway zones had requested the railway board to give them the power to operate such commercial catering units.

Following the examination of matter at the Board, the Railways decided to give powers to general managers of zonal railways to conduct review of sites for major commercial catering units like food plazas, food courts and restaurants.

The order gave permission to the 17 zonal railways to use vacant space at stations for such units.

“Setting up of food plaza/fast food units/multicuisine restaurants by Zonal Railways at the vacant/non-utilised space available at railway stations. References have been received from Zonal Railways seeking permission to operate major static units (Food Plazas, Fast Food Units and Multi Cuisine restaurants) in view of the fact that many spaces allotted to IRCTC have continued to remain vacant thus leading to non-provision of passenger service and loss of railway revenue,” the order stated.

Sources quoted by news agency PTI indicate that as many as 100-150 such static units are planned to be set up by the zonal railways.

The order further stated that general managers of zonal railways conduct review of sites for major catering units that have been vacant for one year or more and set up food outlets with provision of local or regional cuisine.

“The sites being taken over from IRCTC may follow due process of coordination and take into consideration the terms and conditions of existing contracts/agreements, if any. The Food Plazas/FFU/Multicuisine restaurant will be allotted through open tender process for a period of nine years as stipulated within the Catering Policy 2017,” it said.

With PTI inputs