Western Railway (WR) has introduced meal coupons on some long-distance train services to prevent overcharging for the food supplied in pantry cars and cheating on the quantity supplied.
Western Railways
Western Railway introduced the facility on the Mumbai Central – Jaipur Super Fast Express on Thursday. It intends to extend the facility to other long-distance trains too – possibly after studying the experience gained in the meantime.
Central Railway has earlier introduced the facility on the Dadar-Chennai Express and the Konark Express.
Sharat Chandrayan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway, said, “The pre-printed meal coupons will be sold in advance by pantry car staff to passengers who want to have standard breakfast, lunch or dinner. Commuters can exchange the coupons at the time of service of meals by the pantry staff.”
Chandrayan further said, “The meal tariffs and menu items, along with quantity to be served, have been printed on the coupons. With the introduction of the coupons, overcharging will be eliminated. Passengers will get menu items printed on coupons. It will cut out the practice of unauthorized hawking by outsiders.”
In case of complaints, passengers can contact a senior official on the mobile number 9004490971.
While overcharging – which does not seem to be all that common unless it is the hawkers selling food on trains – can be eliminated by the proposed mechanism, cheating on quantity may not be amenable to a solution under the new system.
In any case, pantry car operators have an easier way to shortchange the passengers by compromising on the quality by using sub-standard ingredients.
There has never been a tamper-proof lock against the determined efforts of a thief, right?
Tags: india western railways
