Train service was halted for months due to Coronavirus Pandemic. Later it was decided to run special trains without a pantry car in them. Now the Indian Railways is considering removing the pantry car in more than 300 trains. It is believed that this decision of Railways will affect at least 10,000 jobs in the railway sector. The revenue of the railway has suffered a lot. On the other hand, now people have become used to of bringing food from home during the journey. In such a situation, the Railways is considering replacing the pantry car with AC 3-tier.
Usually, 20-30 people work in the pantry car of a train, which includes cooks and waiters. Accordingly, if a decision is taken to remove pantry cars in 300 trains, then about 10 thousand jobs will be affected.
It is possible that you will not get the facility of pantry car in the railway in the coming days. You will either have to order food through e-catering or you will have to carry food for yourself from home.
E-catering and base kitchens are other options
Railways is also considering e-catering. Apart from this, there is another plan to prepare base kitchens at large stations. According to the report, this proposal has been given by two big railway unions. As per some of the news reports, the railway has also accepted this proposal.
Presently there are about 350 pair of trains which have pantry car facilities. These include Mail, Express, Superfast and Premium service trains. The union has also said in its proposal that the people working in the pantry are not railway staff. They work for private contractors. In such a situation, the rail union has no objection to this proposal.
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Revenue Generation
The replacement of the Pantry car with AC 3-tier will bring about 1400 crore annual revenue to the Railways. Traffic generation has become very important for railways. As compared to the previous year, the traffic revenue of railways has declined by about 43% in the March-August period.