That is quite a tough question to answer because the variety of options on offer is huge. Well, thanks to the IRCTC food order initiative in its partnership with Zoop is now able to satiate millions of passenger’s palettes so they don’t have to worry about food arrangements while they travel. This alleviates a huge factor of stress from a travelers mind, affording them a more peaceful journey.
The app and the partner’s prerogative
The technology – Zoop is an app enabling the ordering of fresh online meals, brought right to your seat as you travel by train. The company – in its partnership with IRCTC is committed to delivering fresh, hygienic, high-quality meals to travelers. To achieve this prerogative Zoop has roped in a multitude of restaurants, caterers, fast food chains, and food delivery service vendors. These caterers, vendors, and restaurants are located all along the Indian Railway’s travel path from the northernmost point to the southernmost tip of the Indian Railways.
This multitude of restaurants, caterers, and food delivery service vendors, are contracted to deliver piping hot meals of the highest quality. However, it is Zoop that makes this possible, holds it all together, and ensures satisfied passengers as well as a satisfied IRCTC. The standards set to meet the basic expectations of passengers’ safety, satisfaction and wellbeing are absolute.
By maintaining adherence and commitment to these expectations, passengers can rest assured of:
- The superior quality of meals
- The high standards of food and beverage (F&B) hygiene
- The food safety standards and
- The food preparation and handling procedures
- The highest standards of service to create customer delight
While the above are all the physical checks and quality assurances, for the passengers’ safety, satisfaction, and wellbeing, superior technology and the app ensure:
- Simplicity of use – user friendly
- Wide variety of cuisines and delicacies to choose from
- Option to choose the station where you are served
- The prompt delivery of food
- Precise delivery of the right food to the right person
- Option to pay online or cash on delivery
Boredom alleviated with a bright spot
In this day and age of instant karma where a long train journey is undertaken, for whatever reason, it can’t be all that exciting unless it is the only means of reaching your destination. In short, boredom builds up quickly while on a long train journey, most often even before. So small creature comforts go a long way in alleviating that kind of boredom or even frustration. Small creature comforts such as tantalizingly, delectable food in train, to look forward to and indulge in while you travel. The food will not just satisfy your palette, but your stomach as well and you can relax with the ease of mind.
Individual needs factored-in
The menus and the nature of restaurants, caterers, fast food chains contracted to ensure that there is good food to suit everyone. Individual needs are well thought out and factored in. So whether you are a foodie, a nutrition and diet enthusiast, or on a medically restricted diet your needs and desires are factored in. Nobody’s specific needs are overlooked. Your IRCTC food order is definitely one bright spot in the arduous train journey.
The togetherness and warmth of family and friends
Unless you are traveling alone and enjoy your journey solo, you would most likely be traveling with family or friends, or both. In this scenario, it is heartwarming to actually be able to able to spend quality time with your loved ones. This “quality time spent with family and friends” is a ritual that seems completely outdated these days. Everybody seems to have a shared relationship with their cell phone and warmth and love are rarely experienced or expressed.
So on such occasions, while on a long train journey it is great to have such opportunities to spent this togetherness and warmth over a meal and actually reconnect with family and friends. And what better opportunity than these long arduous journeys where you have access to tantalizingly, delectable food in train, to look relish and indulge in while you travel.
Then and Now
While the IRCTC formerly had food carts on platforms and pantry cars on trains, it was totally inadequate to serve passengers’ needs or desires. Passengers were forced to carry home-cooked meals to guard against the lousy, potentially contaminated food that these carts and pantries had to offer. So good food was a constant concern and passengers had to make alternative arrangements up until recently. However, the IRCTCs initiative to make food more accessible and pleasurable to passengers led them to launch their eCatering services. This created the need for food tech such as Zoop to actually mobilize the service and make it a real scrumptious overall food experience, a passenger delight, and not an ordeal. The amazing app, and what it can do make the ordeal of long train journeys so much lighter. And that is exactly why IRCTC chose ZoopIndia, a food tech organization to be its food aggregator. As IRCTCs food aggregator Zoop has been delighting thousands of passengers each month.
The global road bump
The pandemic and all of the woes it cascaded all across the planet saw the undoing and decimation of businesses big and small for lack of sustenance. Although the “food delivery services” did not suffer any major closures, restaurants and caterers did, for lack of feasibility to sustain businesses over and through the lockdown. IRCTC as a matter of fact had its share of woes do to the complete lockdown. With the complete lockdown and no train services, no travelers and therefore no food required. It has been bumpy for IRCTC to resume its eCatering services, amidst expansion plans.
The present overview of expansion plans looks really bright for all concerned, the IRCTC, Zoop, and passengers as well. The plans include expanding the service to a larger number of stations in phase two. This is really exciting news to a large number of travelers who currently do not have access to any such service. So travel looks exciting for a larger number of passengers and rail routes.