Beyond the nostalgia associated with meals on trains, quite often, there are also horror stories. In fact, even a recent Parliament Panel report pointed out how food quality on Indian trains is compromised. The IRCTC (The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) has been trying to figure out how to make food a more enjoyable experience on trains and more importantly, a solid source of revenue. 

A decade ago, IRCTC launched its e-catering services. It now has a network of nearly 500 restaurant partners and close to 20 food aggregators. Catering makes up for more than 40% of IRCTC’s revenue every year. And its seems it will only go up because in the last few months, IRCTC has also tied up with two of the country’s food delivery giants, Zomato and Swiggy.

But while IRCTC has big dreams of catering to the 20 million passengers who take the train everyday, delivering food on trains is a logistical nightmare.

Tune in.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories