Bad food on Vande Bharat trains; 319 complaints, ₹21 lakh in fines
The railways can cancel catering contracts and blacklist repeat offenders, but no such action has been taken
The railways can cancel catering contracts and blacklist repeat offenders, but no such action has been taken
The railways can cancel catering contracts and blacklist repeat offenders, but no such action has been taken
Thiruvananthapuram: Railway authorities have imposed fines amounting to lakhs of rupees on contractors for supplying bad food to Vande Bharat trains, according to a reply received by ‘Malayala Manorama’ through a Right to Information (RTI) request. The railways collected fines amounting to around ₹15 lakh from a single train, the Mangaluru – Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat express, between January and April this year. The railways also received ₹6,77,500 as fines from the other Vande Bharat service in Kerala that connects Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod.
Even as the railway authorities have been stating that there are no widespread complaints regarding catering on Vande Bharat trains, the RTI reply reveals that the ‘RailMadad’ app alone received 319 complaints regarding the poor quality of food served on six Vande Bharat trains under the Southern Railway between July 2024 and April 2025. Although the railways can cancel catering contracts and blacklist repeat offenders, no such action has been taken.
A team of railway officials had recently inspected the base kitchen of the company supplying food to Vande Bharat trains in Kochi and reported serious violations. As per the report, food was prepared in unclean vessels, there was no proof of cleaning the tank used to store the water used for cooking, no records were kept of item purchases, and food was prepared in unhygienic conditions.
The team also detected that a mere eight of the 24 employees at the base kitchen possessed medical certificates. The Kochi Corporation had sealed the base kitchen before the railway team’s visit, which also found that seven employees had received their medical certificates on May 16, after the facility was closed. The team also found that food for other trains was prepared at the base kitchen in Kochi, violating the stipulations of the contract.
Meanwhile, the contractor opened a new base kitchen in Shoranur soon after the facility in Kochi was shut down by the City Corporation.