Railways extends e-catering service to 408 stations

Indian Railways today launched four new initiatives, including extension of railway catering service to more centres, e-ticketing for accredited journalist on concessional passes to ensure passenger comfort and to strengthen the railways system

Railways has now extended the e-catering service from the existing 45 major stations to 408 A-1 and 'A' class railway stations, which is in line with PM's 'Digital India' programme.

At a programme held at Rail Bhavan today, railway minister Suresh Prabhu also inaugurated a `traffic rationalisation policy permitting 2-point loading in BCN wagons and increasing scope of mini-rake facility from 400 km to 600 km in both BCN and BCNHL wagons and commencement of pilot study on introduction of accrual accounting and upgraded costing system at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, a production unit of the ministry of railways.

These are part of Railway Budget announcement.

Speaking on the occasion, the railway minister said every passenger service is backed by well-thoughtout planning and lots of efforts. Under the extending scheme of e-catering, travelling passengers would be able to order food of their choice from leading private caterers at designated 408 major railway stations.  He said that this scheme will include food prepared by women at home which will also lead to women empowerment.

Speaking on e-ticketing service to accredited journalist, the minister said that this was a long-standing demand of the journalists to allow the process of online booking ticket through concessional passes, which has now been fulfilled.

A journalist can easily book the ticket over internet and can avoid the problem of standing in long queues in PRS counters. To avail the benefits of this feature the journalist has to use his / her registered id card number issued by Indian Railways (as is done for PRS counter booking) to book the ticket for oneself, or for spouse, children or companion.

Another initiative of the Railways is the commencement of a pilot study on the introduction of accrual accounting and upgraded costing system at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, Prabhu said, adding that Indian Railways holds huge assets which require proper monitoring.

He said that Railways want to orient and integrate cost and management system.  He said what is more important is getting desired outcome for incurred expenditure.

He said that seven zones have already implemented this kind of scheme thereby making expenditure accountable to outcome which is the sole objective to introduce this scheme.

Regarding freight rationalization, Prabhu said it is an ongoing process and ''we will continue to do so as freight is main revenue resource for Railways. We will be very market friendly.''

Measure to help mainly cement and fertilizer sectors in dispatching reduced `Parcel Size' to smaller markets; allowing loading for two point combination destinations in BCN rakes in addition to BCNHL rakes means permitting 1,260 tonnes of parcel size to reach a market as compared to over 1,900 tonnes of the parcel size. The measures like introducing `Mini Rake', `Two Point / Multi Point' combinations in both BCN and BCNHL rakes will provide much needed support to cement sector and at the same time, help Railways in also in ensuring that its share does not deplete any further.

These measures are likely to help Railways garner an additional 5 million tonnes of traffic, including about 3 million tonnes of cement traffic.

The railways has also undertaken measure to increase the catchment area for smaller markets by increasing the distance limit from 400 km to 600 km in case of mini rakes for cement distribution.

Railways is expecting to get additional traffic of about 5.5 to 6 million tonnes by initiating these steps in the coming fiscal, primarily from cement, foodgrain and fertilizer sectors apart from essential commodities like salt and sugar.