The Indian Railways have allowed the sale of cooked food in its catering and vending units. However, the food plaza, Jan Ahar, The cell kitchen and refreshment room will be available only for takeaways. As per the earlier order, the Railways had permitted the sale of packaged food only.
The decision was stated in an order issued by IRCTC recently. “Zones are advised to have stable catering units (food plazas, fast food units, jana ahars, cell kitchens and refreshment rooms) with limited salable amount of 10 Turn on percent. Items up to September 30 may be allowed to operate until October 31 at a pro-rata LF of 20 percent of the license fee with the sale of only cooked food”, the order said.
The zone has also been advised that contracts which have expired after March 23 can also be permitted to operate till October 31 on payment of license fee of 20 per cent.
Although the an order was issued earlier, not too many vendors opened their units owing to the low footfall of people. The vendors association even wrote to the Railways requesting them not to pressurize them to open their stalls.
Recently, Railway Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer VK Yadav said on that the Railways shall start 200 special trains between October 15 and November 30 for the festive season. More special trains were started to take care of the post lockdown overload on the railways.
(Feature image source: The Indian Express)
