Kochi: The Southern Railways is in the process of taking over operations of restaurants selling traditional foods from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), resulting in the availability of good quality food at lesser prices at major stations like Ernakulam.
“The railways will now float a tender directly for traditional vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants at such stations instead of leasing out to the IRCTC. The competitive bidding process means food items will be made available at lower prices. The IRCTC, a subsidiary of the railways, will now focus on Food Plazas,” said V C Sudheesh, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager.
The construction of the restaurant and a new Upper Class Waiting Room that could accommodate over 100 passengers is in progress, a senior officer at the Ernakulam South station said.
“For instance if a cup of coffee is now priced at '10, it would be available for Rs 7. Similar is the case with lunch with traditional cuisines,” the officer said.
The Ernakulam South station is finally witnessing a flurry of construction activities as part of raising it to international standards.
“The tender for a mechanised laundry with a capacity of one ton per shift has been floated. The Rs 9.5 crore project is being implemented on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis,” the officer said.
The station has been completely made disabled-friendly with a ramp built at the Eastern entry by the Greater Cochin Development Authority based on a request by the railways.
