Vijay Singh
New Delhi [India], August 20: Rahul Himalian, Chairman and Managing Director of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, conducted a detailed inspection of Mumbai’s catering operations. The inspection focused on on-ground implementation and accountability. He personally inspected the Ahmedabad – Mumbai Tejas Express and used the journey to talk to passengers directly, understanding their concerns, asking them what they thought of the food and service on board. Most of the passengers gave a highly positive review, showing the commitment of IRCTC to address concerns raised by passengers over the years.
From the train, the inspection moved to Mumbai Central, where he checked the Jan Aahar and Food Plaza outlets, going through food quality, cleanliness, and whether staff were sticking to the standards laid down for them. He then headed to the base kitchens at Kurla and Chembur, the two facilities that actually cook and dispatch meals for trains passing through the city. Raw material handling, sanitation, storage, and quality control were all part of what he looked at there – making sure no aspect was left unchecked.
At the core of this exercise is a simple but often overlooked or ignored idea: clean, safe food is not a favour railways do for passengers; it is something they are entitled to & The positive aspect is that now the current chairman is leaving no stone unturned to make sure such words or phrases become a reality , rather than a piece of paper. The Supreme Court of India interprets the Right to Safe and Hygienic Food as an integral part of Article 21 (Right to Life). A train journey in India can stretch for hours, sometimes days, and what a passenger eats during that time matters as much as punctuality or comfort.
Himalian has now asked every catering unit to improve further with clear timelines attached and said he will personally track progress. This is something that focuses on a top-down approach of Executive Accountability. Senior officials including Gaurav Jha, Group General Manager for IRCTC’s West Zone in Mumbai, and Sandeep Datta, Additional General Manager for Catering, were present during the inspection, along with other officers from the corporation, indeed a positive sign for Indian Railways travellers.
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