OREANDA-NEWS.  It is a continuous endeavour by the Indian Railways to provide good quality hygienic food and water to Railway passengers. Accordingly, a New Catering Policy, 2010 has been introduced on 21.7.2010 with a mandate for effective quality assurance programme, wherein ISO-22000 International Organization for Standardization) standards are to be progressively implemented for major contracts/units. Supervision and monitoring have been strengthened through a mechanism put in place by deploying railway personnel, who check quality and hygiene and take corrective action in a time-bound manner.

 About 44286 inspections have been carried out in the last one year April 2012 to June 2013. If any irregularity is found positive actions like imposition of fine, warning and termination of contract etc. are taken according to the gravity of offence/irregularity. Passengers’ opinion cards also circulated for feedback and improvement. A centralized having a toll free number 1800-111-321 for prompt redressal of the passenger grievances related to the catering activities for real time assistance to travelling public. On the same pattern, Catering Monitoring Cells have been set up at Zonal and Divisional level for daily monitoring of the catering activities.