Railways: Hygiene-related issues up 500% in 2 yrs; complaints per meal down

In light of these complaints, IRCTC has issued 68 showcause notices, and three contracts were cancelled between January 2021 and March 2024

Passenger complaints related to food quality and hygiene on Indian Railways, according to reports, have shot up from 1,192 at the end of March 2022 to 6,948 between April 2023 and February 2024, a rise of 500 per cent. According to the response to an RTI query filed by CNBC-TV18, such complaints have also come from passengers in premium train services like Vande Bharat, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, and Mail Express.

The response, provided by the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), also reveals that the total number of catering complaints between April 2021 and February 2024 was 11,850. In light of these complaints, the IRCTC has issued 68 showcause notices, and cancelled three contracts between January 2021 and March 2024.

Complaints per meal have gone down: IRCTC

The IRCTC has emphasised the interpretation of the aforementioned data in the right context. It has pointed out that there has been a significant decline in "complaint rate per meal served between 2021-22 and 2023-24".

"Post-resumption of cooked meals in 2021–22 (January 2022), on average, 14 quality/hygiene complaints per day were received, which is 0.0029 per cent of approximately 500,000 cooked meals per day," clarified IRCTC in an email, adding that "20 quality/hygiene complaints per day were received in 2023-24, which is 0.0012 per cent of the total meals served."

Additionally, IRCTC also clarified that while only three contracts were cancelled, service providers "were taken up suitably" according to the terms and conditions of the contract. It said that the "action against service providers is taken based on the severity of each case".

Poor food quality: A persistent problem?

Earlier, in 2017, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had highlighted in a report the issue of food quality in Indian Railways. The report revealed that Indian Railways’ caterers “consistently failed to protect the food served to passengers from flies, insects, dust, rats, and cockroaches”.

Another piece of data, quoted in a CNBC-TV18 report, suggests that 123 complaints were received regarding stale food and food items containing dead insects, flies, and cockroaches being served to passengers on Vande Bharat trains between April 2023 and February 2024.

In 2022, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had informed the Lok Sabha that the railways’ catering arm, IRCTC, had received more than 5,000 complaints related to the quality of food on trains over seven months.

Corrective steps

In 2023, the Railway Board issued a directive to various railway zones and IRCTC to implement a series of immediate measures aimed at addressing complaints and grievances related to catering services on Vande Bharat trains.

The Railway Board also instructed zonal managers to ensure that announcements were made on all Vande Bharat trains to inform passengers about the availability of meals and to improve the quality of food preparation.

Separately, the Indian Railways announced fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 5 lakh and even termination of contracts for those failing to maintain hygiene in the preparation and delivery of food on trains.

"We follow a well laid out quality and hygiene check system wherein the food samples are checked regularly at NABL-accredited labs. Kitchens are monitored through CCTV, etc. For further improvement in quality and to mitigate catering-related complaints, long-term cluster tenders are being finalised for setting up modern base kitchens across India," IRCTC further said in its email.