The legendary pantry cars of Indian trains are being gradually retired, effective 2015. Gone are the days when your hunger and food preferences used to be hijacked by the pantry car operator, and you had to compromise for your food, during travel.
Welcome to June 16, 2017, because from today onwards, you can have your favourite burger from McDonald, that crunchy cheese burst pizza from Dominos, that mouthwatering chicken nugget from KFC, that mind-blowing lassi from Haldiram and more, all while sitting in your train, enjoying the sceneries which pass along.
In a major initiative, IRCTC has joined forces with leading food brands, which will allow passengers of Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains to pre-order their meals, and get them delivered at their choice of station, right inside the train.
The food brands with whom IRCTC has partnered include McDonald’s, KFC, Switz Foods, Only Alibaba, Dominos, Haldiram, Bikanerwala, Nirulas, Sagar Ratna and Pizza Hut.
The pilot batch for this online food ordering started with Shatabdi Express between Ludhiana and Delhi. Passengers of this train were able to order from Domino’s, Gyan Vegetarian at Ludhiana and Babbi Fish and Chicken.
In fact, IRCTC had already conducted a 45-day trial run of this food initiative since June last year, on these routes: Delhi-Mumbai August Kranti Rajdhani, Patna Rajdhani, Pune-Secunderabad Shatabdi and Howrah-Puri Shatabdi.
Now, it shall be implemented pan-India.
3 Ways You Can Pre-Order These Meals
a) Visit www.ecatering.irctc.co.in and then choose the station where you need the meals, or enter your PNR number to get the list, wherein such pre-order of branded food items is available. Once you select the food items, you would be directed to make the payment, and subsequently, an OTP would be generated, which needs to be verified at the time of delivery.
b) Call 1323 from your phone, and place the order via voice assisted program. With this mode as well, you will receive an OTP, which needs to be verified at the time of delivery. You will need to pay by cash, on delivery.
c) SMS ‘MEAL’, followed by your PNR number to 139. You will be connected with an operator, who will take your order. In this mode as well, you will need to verify the order via OTP, and you need to pay by cash, on delivery.
Do let us know your experience of using IRCTC’s pre-ordered meals, by commenting right here!