To promote Digital India initiative over Indian Railways, digital method of transactions for purchase of food items through catering units at Railway Stations is being encouraged and 8878 static units are having the facility of digital payment.
In addition to this, Handheld PoS machines are being provided at catering units to generate printed bills and invoices reflecting all details of transactions undertaken and to address the complaints of overcharging. At present, 3081 POS machines are available on 596 trains. 4316 static units have been provided with POS machines.
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 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/by calling 1323.
E-Catering service is currently available at 310 Railway stations through 1755 Service Providers and 14 Food Aggregators, supplying an average number of 41,844 meals per day.
Prioritizes early completion of Railway Track projects
Meanwhile, Railways has been working in the pursuit of reducing the unit cost of logistics to minimum. Of late, rail infrastructure projects related with Railway tracks have been given big push and as a result, a trend is clearly visible. Progress of Railway track projects i.e. New Lines, Gauge conversion and multi-tracking (doubling/tripling) has shot up almost three times in the period April-September (till date) vis-a-vis last year.
During this Financial Year till 21st September 2022, Railways has completed 1353 track Kilometres (TKM) of New lines, Gauge conversion and multi tracking projects. Another 150 TKM is likely to be added in the month of September itself.
Combined figure is more than three times of the last year’s figures for the same period during the last financial year. Last year, 482 TKM was completed till 30th September, 2021.
During this Financial Year till date, 42 TKM of New Line, 28 TKM of Gauge Conversion and 1283 TKM of multi tracking has been completed. However, during last financial year (till September 2021), only 4 TKM of Gauge conversion and 478 TKM of Multi tracking was achieved. No progress in the new lines was achieved during corresponding period.
