Indian Railways is encouraging the use of digital methods of payment for food purchases made at railway stations’ catering units. This is being done to promote the Digital India initiative. The Railways said in a statement that digital payment is available in 8878 static units.
Handheld PoS machines have been provided at catering units for the convenience of customers in order to generate printed bills and invoices reflecting all details of transactions completed and to address complaints of overcharging. According to the Railway Ministry, there are 3081 POS machines on 596 trains and 4316 static units
have POS machines.
To provide a wide range of options to passengers in trains, e-catering services have been introduced on Indian Railways. It is worth noting that the service is currently available at 310 railway stations through 1,755 service providers and 14 food aggregators, supplying an average number of 41,844 meals per day.
“For widening the range of options available to passengers in trains, E-Catering Services have been introduced on Indian Railways. E-catering services are managed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Passengers can pre-order meals of their choice at the time of booking of e-ticket or while travelling on train using App, Call Centre, website or by calling 1323,” the ministry said in its statement.
Reduce unit cost of logistics
Indian Railways has also been working to reduce the unit cost of logistics. Furthermore, rail infrastructure projects involving railway tracks have received significant funding. Progress on railway track projects, such as new lines, gauge conversion, and multi-tracking (doubling/tripling), has also increased since 2021.
Railways completed 1353 track Kilometres (TKM) of new lines, gauge conversion, and multi tracking projects during the fiscal year ending September 21, 2022. Rail infrastructure across the country is undergoing a visible transformation. There is a clear trend in which Indian Railways is working to make the rail infrastructure more passenger-friendly.
