PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORT

IRCTC CENTRAL KITCHEN

SUBMITTED BY
SHARATH SUDHAKARAN MENON
MBA 2ND YEAR
ROLL NO. 52
ASB , KOCHI
ABSTRACT
This case refers to the food supply chain of IRCTC Central Kitchen and how the different
process leads to supplying food to a huge number of people. It talks about how quality plays a
huge role in the food that is being manufactured in the mega kitchen and all the departments
that are involved in making the best food available to the travellers

INTRODUCTION

With a distance spanning of more than 65000 km, IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and
Tourism Corporation) is one of the busiest rail networks in the world. Started in the year 1999
it is a subsidiary of Indian railways and takes care of the catering, tourism, and online ticketing
operations of the railways. The mission of IRCTC is to provide high quality meals at low cost.
IRCTC has been serving food to the travelling public for a long time now. Headquarted in New
Delhi , India it offers products such as e-ticketing And offline booking services and has services
which includes catering, tourism and online ticketing. It has been one of the most favourite
way for Indians to travel.

Although IRCTC has its mainstream operations in booking tickets there is a huge need of food
for the travellers because the journey usually exceeds 3 days and IRCTC caters to the needs of
its fellow travellers by providing high quality food at a low cost such that it is affordable to the
common man. In order to make this work out a huge mega kitchen is working day in and day
out to fulfil the food needs of lakhs of people.

VISION

To be the leading provider of high quality travel, tourism and hospitality related services, for
a range of customer segments, with consistently high level of customer satisfaction

OBJECTIVES OF IRCTC

To maximise the use of innovation and technology and to be constantly connected with
its customers.
To have a high ROI by enhancing areas of core competencies
Provide high quality services to its customers
Concern for heritage and environment
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
 The corporate office of IRCTC is presently situated at New Delhi. The Managing
Director is assisted by 3 directors
Director ( Finance)
Director ( Catering)
Director ( Tourism and Marketing)
And followed by 9 group managers. The five zonal offices working at Delhi, Kolkatta,
Chennai, Mumbai, and Secunderabad. The zonal offices are directed by regional offices
such as Lucknow , Chandigarh , Jaipur , Bhubaneshwar , Guwahati , Patna , Bhopal ,
Bangalore and Ernakulam etc which are headed by chief regional managers.

SERVICES BY IRCTC

1. Online Reservations

Nowadays online ticket booking facility is more prevalent than booking tickets
from booking counters. The online tickets can be booked from www.irctc.co.in.
IRCTC has also introduced e-wallet option that is more convenient for users
nowadays. Booking tickets through mobile is also a large opportunity to IRCTC
to capitalise on. For this IRCTC has launched the website
https://www.irctc.co.in/mobile for mobile ticket booking

2. Tourism
IRCTC supports tourism and promotes it by providing affordable tour packages
so that it is affordable even by the common man. The IRCTC tourism site also
provides flight bookings and tourist trains bookings to make your holiday a
great one. IRCTC also has been involved with many governments to run Tirth
Yathra trains for senior citizens. The corporation is also planning to still expand
existing business lines and new lines such as Corporate Travel.
3. Food Centres
Hundreds of food centres have been set up across various stations to provide
food for the passengers travelling. High quality and low cost is the trademark
of these food centres thereby making it available for the common man.

MANPOWER
In 2012 the manpower available for IRCTC was 1762. The employees consist of direct
employees , deemed deputation absorbees , deemed deputationists, deputationists and fixed
term employees. There has been a decline in the number of employees in IRCTC.

Employee rate
6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

MAIN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES

On board catering services and static catering units on the Indian Railway
Network

IRCTC has on board catering services in the train and also through food plazas and fast food
units and automatic vending machines

Manufacturing Packaged Drinking Water for Indian Railway Passengers

Two plants of Railneer packaged drinking water are operating at Nangloi ( Delhi ) and
Danapur ( Bihar )
New Rail Neer Plants
Rail Neer Plant of 15,000 cartons per day is being set up at Palur near Chennai. Tender has
been awarded and physical work for setting up building is in advance stage. For Western
region, architect and plant consultants 168 have been appointed for Rail Neer plant at
Ambernath near Mumbai
Departmental Catering
Four Rajdhani trains and four mail/express trains were made operational in 2009. Patna
Rajdhani train was taken over under departmental operation from August 2008. Total 518
stalls and 419 trolleys were under departmental operation during the year

MANAGING RAILWAY ENQUIRY CALL CENTRE

IRCTC has brought into place a call centre for passenger enquiry to get relevant information
such as train timing, PNR confirmation, train routes etc.

SEGMENT WISE PERFORMANCE OF IRCTC

IRCTC mainly operates in 2 aras. i.e. Catering and Hospitality sector
The Catering sector is divided into 3 more areas namely Licensee Catering, Departmental
Catering, packaged drinking water Rail Neer
Licensee Catering
During the year 2011-12, the Licensee catering business registered an income of Rs 30.38
Crore as against Rs 316.26 Crore achieved during 2010 -11. The Segment result (profit)
achieved was Rs 9.42 Crore during the year 2011 - 12 as against Rs.78.74 Crore during
the year 2010-11. The decline in the income of the segment was due to transfer of Licensee
catering business to the Railways on implementation of Catering Policy , 2010.

ISO Certfication

Quality of catering services has been enhanced through various quality measures including
ISO certification. During the year 2011 - 12, 23 food plazas/fast food units were ISO certified
taking the total number to 52. For the year 2012 - 13, target of ISO certification for additional
12 such units has been fixed.

IRCTC Central Kitchen

Here we have a kitchen which not only caters to the needs of the train passengers but also to
the food needs of various MNCs. This is IRCTCs Central Kitchen.

Being one of the largest kitchens in the world it provides high quality food to the people. The
central kitchen is currently situated in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and has an optimum capacity of
about 25000 meals per day. Currently the 4 storey facility makes 10000 meals and 6000 snack
packets. The shift starts from 11 pm to 4:30 am within which the breakfast is prepared and the
gravies are also set to be dispatched by 6:30 am. With a team strength of around 120 workers
working day in and day out and with the expertise of 67 cooks IRCTC is able to provide the
Indian passengers according to their taste and need. Even though the food process takes place
at lightning speed there is no compromise on quality and if found otherwise the whole lot is
rejected.

Check list of IRCTC

1) Low cost
2) High quality
3) Large volumes
4) Hygiene
5) On time

Catering/vending services on Indian Railways consists of following

facilities:
Refreshment rooms, restaurants, fast food centres/snack bars, tea stalls, fruit/fruit
juices stalls, cold and hot beverage dispensers, miscellaneous goods stalls, ice
cream parlour etc. at railway stations.
Tea stalls at roadside stations.
Integrated on board catering services on Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains.
Services through pantry cars on selected long and medium distance
superfast/mail and express trains.
On board catering/vending services through static units (trains having
no pantry cars)

The IRCTC Central Kitchen spans over 10000 sq ft and it has been divided into

Basement
For receiving fresh produce and for store house
Ground floor
Cooking takes place here. There are separate sections for Vegetarian cooking
and Non- Vegetarian cooking
First floor
 Dedicated to the bakery section , the Roti making section and the Halwai and
Snack section

MISE EN PLACE

Literally meaning to put in place. In a kitchen Mise En Place is a technique used to do large
scale cooking in a fast and efficient manner

BLANCHING

It is a French technique in which the vegetables are first put in boiling hot water and then
transferred to ice cold water to hault the cooking process. This is done to retain the colour of
the vegetables and keep it fresh enough for the cooking process.

Central Kitchen Organisational chart

Mr. Rabin Kalita

Director

Mr. Sudhir Warrier

AGM

Mr. Surendran Mr. Rajesh Kumar

Sumesh ,
Manager,
Manager(Production) Operations

Mr. Deepak Kumar Mr. Shivshankar Mr. Gaurav, Mr. Munendra

Kumar,
Supervisor Supervisor Supervisor
Supervisor

Mr. Sajiv Pillai

Supervisor
Mr Rabin Kalita is the Director of the catering services of IRCTC , supported by Mr. Sudhir

Warrier, Additional General Manager who has an experience of half a decade with the Indian

Railways. Next comes Mr. Surendran Sumesh who is the Manager of Production section and

he has a large team working under him to get the daily demand of food ready. Also Mr. Rajesh

Kumar who is the Manager of Production section is responsible for the proper preparation of

the food items. Mr. Sumesh is assisted by Mr. Deepak Kumar , Mr Shivshankar and Mr. Sajiv

Pillai who are supervisors and take care of the different sections of the Railways catering.

Assisting Mr. Rajesh we have Mr Gaurav who receives the vegetables from the suppliers and

physical checks them for any outer damages and reports it to the respective departments. Mr.

Munendra Kumar is the microbiologist who checks for germ ridden, adulterated items if any

and approves the final lot. Mr. Harminderjit Singh is responsible for transporting the whole

consignment to the respective trains.

The general menu for railways is

Soup
Rice dish
Chapathi
Paneer dish ( for vegetarians)
Chicken dish ( for non vegetarians)
1 desert

Food supply chain activities

On a daily basis about 600 kg of rice , 650 kg of dal, 225kg of dry vegetables are
required to prepare the meals. Around 6000 kachoris are made on a daily basis in span
of 12 hours.

The whole process starts from the checking of the quality of the vegetables supplied by
the supplier. Quality supervisor Mr. Gaurav keeps a close watch on the quality of
each crate of vegetables that come in and does a physical checking of the lot. If there is
any problem with the vegetables the information is passed on to the respective
departments and to the suppliers too.

After the physical checking of the vegetables it is then transferred to a sanitizing bath
to remove any impurities or dirt which get stuck on the body of the vegetables. After
this process a green signal is given to proceed with the vegetables. Dairy items such as
cheese and paneer are items that get easily contaminated. The quality assurance labs
make sure no bad dish is provided to the passengers. Mr. Munendra Kumar (
Mocrobiologist ) is assigned with the duty to check if any sample is germ ridden or
contaminated or if any adulteration has taken place by doing tests on the samples.

Large rice spreading sections are provided to spread the hot rice on cold tables because
hot rice traps steam and it results in forming of lumps which is not appreciated. So to
avoid this the rice is spread evenly and the temperature is brought down to room
temperature.

By mid morning the Kitchen receives the exact number of people travelling and eating
on several trains. The kitchen usually prepares and average number of meals for a
particular day. But the exact number of meals is known only when the list arrives and
according to the list they have to prepare more food if the number is more.

In the sandwich making section, the team receives around 250 to 300 loaves of bread
depending on the demand on the demand from the clients on whether it is brown bread
or white bread. In an 8 hour shift nearly 10000 slices of bread are joined together to
make sandwiches

The Halwai and snack making section is to have about 6000 kachoris ready on a daily
basis on a span of 12 hours. The Kochoris have a shelf life of 6 to 8 hours. Not only
Kachoris but also Rasmalai are also made which cater to the needs of the passengers.
All these snacks are made by hand using traditional techniques.

Modern technology used in Central Kitchen involve latest technology from Finland ,
France , Italy and from India

1) 120 litre Bratt pans

These equipments are brought in from Italy and France to saute

vegetables
 2) 150 litre Steam Kettles
Imported from Finland to boil rice, pulses or soup in just about 40
minutes
3) Dough Maker
Italian dough maker to knead 25 kilos of flour in a single go.
4) Roti maker
Indian made roti maker to make 13000 to 14000 roti breads in a day

Daily Usage

Item Quantity
Rice 600 kg
Dal 650 kg
Dry vegetables 225 kg
Gravy vegetables 350 kg
Salad 130 to 150 kg
Raita 180 kg
Desert 300 kg

Of all the 10000 meals prepared only less than 2000 is provided in trains. With a change
in the government policies in 2010 it took away all of the meal services on trains from
IRCTC.As IRCTC had a huge number of employee base they had to find some source
of revenue and that is when IRCTC thought about catering to the non railways
institutions or institutional catering. They right away turned to corporates but there was
a common misconception that everyone had when it was associated to Indian Railways.
So to break this misconception the people from the corporates were invited to view their
kitchen and that is when the trust started building up.

So the food prepared in the Central kitchen were now catering to two different sectors.

For Railways
 For IRCTC Corporates

The meals are completely different for both. For the Railways it is a 6 item meal while
for corporates it is 14 item meal

Challenges faced by them

Timely pick up of prepared food

Quantity and Quality of food prepared

The quality of the food prepared for the corporates is tested thoroughly by Mr. Rajesh
Kumar, Manager, Catering Operations who tastes the food and gives the final
approval. The dispatch of the items prepared is the next step. Each of the item prepared
is weighed and according to the demands the items are dispatched. The items get
dispatched from the IRCTC Central Kitchen by 10:30 am and by 1 pm the lunch is
served in the corporate offices. The cooked meals are transported in temperature
controlled vehicles. If the transportation distance is too far the the previous price varies
and it will be higher.

The food prepared in the Central kitchen which caters to the needs of the travellers goes
to the respective base kitchens of the stations. Here is where the food items are carefully
portioned in to individual meal casseroles. Ms. Ankita Singh , Supervisor, IRCTC Base
Kitchen checks whether the quality of the food prepared is according to the standard.
The main motive for them is to provide timely delivery of food and to provide fresh
food. The food packs are also available at the food plazas located at the stations which
can cater to the needs of the customers who need to have a quick bite.

Once the food packs reaches the train it is checked by Mr. Kapil Sharma , Supervisor
Quality , IRCTC base kitchen on whether the packing is right and the vegetarian and
non veg food is kept separated.

The corporates also have monthly meetings with the IRCTC catering officials to convey
their needs and demands and the IRCTC takes these demands very seriously and tries
to incorporate these changes.

At present the IRCTC caters to mainly 2 trains i.e. Ahmedabad Rajdhani Express and
the Sealdah Duronto Express and snacks are provided on the other trains also. But even
after dispersing the food packets to the trains there is a final quality check. For eg on
the Rajdhani express we have Mr. Supreme Bele, Supervisor Catering, IRCTC who
gives the final word on the quality of the food supplied.

Another initiative by IRCTC is to provide the ultra luxury passenger trains namely
Maharaja Express which houses 23 coaches, 43 rooms iincluding a presidential suite.
The ticket cost could range from 3000 to 25000 US dollars. The train consists of two
bar lounges and two restaurant cars The kitchen in Maharaja Express is managed by
Mr. Sunil Tarneja, General Manager, Maharaja Express. The two cuisines being
provided onboard are Continental and Indian. Each cusine involving 5 courses. The
supplies are bought in advance from the Delhi or Mumbai. It is then stored in
warehouses and deep freezes on board the train. The storage can be done for roughly
about 30 days. Chef Jone Stone heads the kitchen and with his expertise in the field of
cooking he is able to satisfy the hunger needs of the people. He makes sure he meets
the diners and gets their view on the food prepared and also prepares customised food
according to the likes of the travellers. By taking safety into consideration all cooking
is done on induction stoves to stop any fires on a moving train. Different cuisines are
provided for the passengers on a daily basis.

PROBLEMS FACED BY COMMON PEOPLE

The quality of food served in Railways has been a note of concern for most of the
people. The foods provided in trains is kept in unhygienic conditions and mostly will
be pre-cooked food. The kitchens in the trains have very poor ventilation facilities and
the cooks are not of good quality.

One example related to bad food is the incident dating back to July, 2014 where a
cockroach was found in the food provided in the Kolkata - Rajdhani Express and it led
to huge chaos among the people. These situations and news lead to more people moving
away from taking IRCTC food rather prefer it to bring from their homes.

Having a conversation with one of my friends

Me: When was the last time you travelled in a train?

Friend : About 2 months back.

 Me: Did u buy breakfast, lunch or dinner from the train?

Friend: Nope. I had parcelled it from my home.

Me : Did you have any unsatisfactory experience with the IRCTC food previously?

Friend: Yes. Had ordered breakfast on a train to Pune and the quality of food delivered
was very bad.

Me: Was it the food delivered at that time that forced you to quit eating or are there any
other reasons?

Friend: The lack of cleanliness in the pantry and the quality of food served.

Similar conversations were made with 10 other people and according to their replies two of the
main reasons people do not go for IRCTC food are:

Lack of cleanliness of pantry and the train as a whole

Low quality food served

INITIATIVES BY IRCTC

During travel , be it by bus , train or by car, drinking water is a must. Similarly while
travelling on board trains availability of good drinking water is very scarce. To improve
passenger amenities , IRCTC has launched Rail Neer which is packaged drinking water
produced at state of the art plants . Nearly 400000 bottles are being produced daily to cater
to the thirst of the people . But Rail Neer is meeting only 25% of the demand in the market
and is lacking supply. In many stations there is a lack of supply of Rail Neer and the railway
authorities itself have asked to supply water bottles of other brands.

NATURE OF PROBLEMS FACED BY PASSENGERS IN RAILWAY

CATERING

Food Quality and Hygiene issues

 Some of the components that constitute in the food quality and hygiene services
are
1) Quantity : Some of the people complain the quantity of the food they
received was not enough and did not fulfil their hunger.
2) Variety of food : People who travel for 3-4 days at a stretch have the
problem that there is no variety in the food that is served and is very
common food that is served like Veg Biriyani and Chicken Biriyani.
3) Hygiene Level : The food prepared does not adhere to the standards
set and also much adulteration is done before the food reaches the
travellers.
4) Packaging : The packaging of the food is also not proper at times
5) Timing of meals : Usually when there is a delay in the train timings,
the food ordered also gets late thereby causing inconvenience to the
passengers
Staff Misbehaviour
The railway staff also behave rude to the passengers sometimes. Even the
cleaners have their duties in addressing to the passengers in a polite manner
which will in turn help the Railways.
Overpricing
Selling of food items at a price higher than its MRP is a usual custom in trains.
People buy it as there are no other alternatives to choose from.
Waste Management System
Disposal of food waste and other waste is another major cause of concern.
Mostly it is disposed of by throwing it out from the trains but this causes
degradation of the tracks and causes much harm to the families residing near
the tracks.
Infrastructure Development

Another questionnaire was distributed among 10 of my batchmates

1) Have you ever used Railway catering facility?

a) Yes, on trains
b) Yes, on stations
 c) No

Have you ever used Railway catering

facility?

0%
30% Yes, on trains
Yes, in stations

70% No

From the above we can we see that out of the 10 people 7 of them have had food
on trains while the rest 3 of them have used the railway catering facility at the
stations itself.

2) Is catering and hospitality important in your travel?

a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes

20%

Yes
No
20% 60% Sometimes
 From this we can see that 6 people out of 10 think that catering and hospitality
are important while going on a journey while 2 of them think No it is not
important and rest of the 2 think it comes in handy only sometimes.

3) How was the quality of food offered?

a) Good
b) Bad
c) Neutral

10% 10%

Good
Bad
Neutral

80%

About the quality of food offered 7 people think it was bad food that was offered
while 3 of them say it was ok.

4) How was the variety of food offered in trains?

a) Good
b) Bad
c) Neutral
 10% 10%

Good
Bad
Neutral

80%

8 out of 10 people say that there was no variety in the food that was offered
while 2 people say there was some variety in what Railways had offered.

5) How was the waste management systems in the platforms and inside the train?
a) Good
b) Bad
c) Neutral

10% 10%

Good
Bad
Neutral

80%

8 out of 10 people say that the waste management system used is bad while the others say it is
bad or neutral.

Designing the central kitchen took pre-planning and attention to details. These are some of
the important issues that were considered in this prestigious project:
 Cutting edge technology
Assured standardized recipes and uniform good quality
Temperature controlled rooms and storages
FSMS: Food Safety Management System (HACCP/ISO22000)
In-house laboratory and Research & Development kitchen
Food traceability
Quality of raw materials and end product
Smart Recall
Reduction of spoilage
RO water treatment plant for all cooking
Solar water treatment plant for all hot water usage
Packaging
Reusable asset management- trays, containers etc.
Regulatory compliance
Optimization of equipment/ manpower
Sanitization, cleanliness and pest management
Environment friendly products.
Capacity
Turnover Rates How Fast?
Site considerations or limitations
HVAC- (Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning)
Flexibility for expansion or revision.

Future Kitchen
The new facilities of IRCTC includes a state-of-art commercial Research & Development test
kitchen, which is a domestic style kitchen with all the required equipment for their highly
trained Kitchen Chefs, to do research and develop new recipes and find suitable packaging
materials for production for customers with the emphasis on nutritious, nourishing, wholesome
healthy food with fat and sugar. They also try food recipes with homely taste that pertain to
different regions of India.
The aim is to understand the trend of the ever-changing consumer tastes and ever more health
conscious public and develop recipes that are of high quality and possible at reasonable prices.

Conclusion

From the above discussion we can see that when the government policies of 2010 were
announced it had a big blow on the railway catering. But due to its thorough planning IRCTC
found a way out by not only catering to the needs of the railway travellers but found a new
segment to cater to and i.e the corporates. From 2011 onwards there has been a steep rise in the
revenues of the IRCTC catering industry as of the 10000 meals prepared per day only 2000 of
those are for the train passengers whereas the rest of the meals are for the corporate industry.
The quality of the food has definitely not been compromised in any manner and only the best
food is provided to its customers.

Reference

Description on Rail Neer. Retrieved from

http://mineralwaterprojectinformation.org/article/tag/irctc/
Antony D. (2016, December 9) Hospitality & Public Health - A Case Study of Indian
Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( IRCTC )
Patil Pranay. ( 2012 , July) How to improve catering services in Indian Railways