Handing over of the Railway Catering System to IRCTC
As announced in the Rail Budget Speech 2016-17, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) would begin to manage catering service in a phased manner. The objectives of transferring the catering services from Railways to IRCTC were not fulfilled, as IRCTC could not professionalize the catering services. Therefore, the management of catering services were taken back by Railways from IRCTC as per the provisions of Catering Policy, 2010 .
In 2015, Sreedhran Committee, set up by the Ministry of Railways recommended transfer of catering services back to IRCTC since IRCTC was setup as an extended arm of the Indian Railways to professionalize catering services on Indian Railways. It has been decided to give back the catering services to IRCTC in a phased manner with unbundling catering services by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution. In order to address the problems faced earlier, it has been decided that there will be no complete handing over of catering service by IRCTC to private licensees and Zonal Railways will have powers of supervision and monitoring.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 04.03.2016 (Friday).
