In continuation to its earlier notification of resuming cooked meals in trains, the Indian Railways on Wednesday announced that it will be restoring catering services in certain premium trains including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Tejas and Gatimaan.

According to the order issued by the Railway Board, Zonal Railways will verify the catering charges to be realized based on services being provided and the applicable rate list and feed the same in the PRS software for enabling booking/opting out of Catering services, from ARP date, at the time of booking of tickets.

“Presently, it will be applicable for only Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Tejas and Gatiman category of trains. For those passengers, who already booked tickets in advance, some directions have been given to the service provider,” the order read.

According to this order, IRCTC will intimate the concerned Zonal Railway about the exact date from which onboard catering services with cooked food will be resumed in a particular train for the journeys falling within the ARP. It also said that Zonal Railways on getting such intimation will enable the option of booking meal or opting out of catering services for the journey dates starting from the commencement of catering service in PRS software.

IRCTC has been advised to inform e-ticket passengers through SMS and e-mail, who already booked tickets in advance regarding the resumption of cooked food supply. Similarly, Zonal railways has been asked to inform passengers who are booked through PRS via Bulk SMS.

For the tickets already booked, IRCTC will provide a facility on its website to opt for catering services and payment of the charges due in advance. This facility will be available for e-tickets as well as counter-ticket passengers.

For those passengers who already booked and have not opted for the same online, cooked food should be made available on demand in the train on a payment basis, subject to availability. The ticket checking staff onboard shall collect the catering charges due as per the approved rate list.

For the unversed, since March 2020, the national transporter had suspended food catering business and other services, such as providing bedrolls, blankets, in the wake of a surge in COVID-19 pandemic-triggered lockdown. The suspension of catering services also affected the employment of lakhs of people. Later, in August this year, IRCTC resumed the e-Catering services.