New Delhi June 1 (IANS) In a bid to boost the e-catering service and to increase the choice of local or regional cuisine for railway passengers the IRCTC on Friday said that it has joined hands with delivery service partner TRAPIGO for the purpose.
In a statement the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) said: "In furtherance of the e-catering initiative to rope in more reputed and reliable aggregators in the field of catering and in increasing the choice of local or regional cuisine to the passengers travelling on trains we have joined hands with delivery service partner TRAPIGO and Shree Mahalakshmi Swayam Sahayata Bachat Ghat (Ratnagiri)."
According to the IRCTC TRAPIGO a last mile B2B logistics service provider for food products is a start-up by IIT-IIM and NIFT graduates.
"In IRCTC s mission to ensure reliable delivery of hot and fresh food from the choicest restaurants in the city TRAPIGO with its own fleet of delivery boys in co-branded uniforms will guarantee the execution.
"Orders placed on IRCTC s e-Catering website www.ecatering.irctc.co.in or ‘Food-on-track app will be delivered by TRAPIGO in neat packaging with co-branded tapes stickers etc at a nominal fee of Rs 15 " the IRCTC said.
The IRCTC said that the new partnership has been made live in Nagpur from Friday on a pilot basis with expansion plans including other cities in the North-Central belt like New Delhi Itarsi Jhansi Bhopal etc.
The IRCTC also said that Shree Mahalakshmi Swayam Sahayata Bachat Ghat a self-help group (SHG) empanelled with it under the e-catering project at Ratnagiri famous for its export quality Alphonso mangoes has also shown interest in selling fresh and naturally ripened organic mangoes to the passengers.
"The SHG will sell the mangoes at a discounted price of Rs 470 per dozen. This is the first of its kind efforts in offering seasonal fruits in a moving train " the IRCTC said.

--IANS aks/vd