OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2011. The new catering policy issued on July 21, 2010 has been issued to provide hygienic affordable meals to the travelling passengers.  Due to intensive monitoring and supervision of Railways and subsequent to transfer of catering services to Zonal Railways from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) the number of complaints reported on catering have reduced substantially, by nearly 48.2 per cent since September 2010 up to July 2011 in comparison to corresponding period of the previous years, reported the press-centre of Indian Railways.

Further, Indian Railways endeavours to make adequate arrangements of drinking water at Railway stations and to maintain high standards of cleanliness and hygiene in trains.  All the coach toilets of a train are intensively cleaned during the scheduled maintenance in the depots before journey. 

Mechanized cleaning attention is also provided to identified trains during their scheduled stoppage at nominated en route “Clean Train Stations” with focus on cleaning and disinfecting of toilets along with doorways and aisles.  Cleaning of coach toilets doorways, aisles and compartments is also carried out in reserved coaches, while on run under the “On Board House Keeping” scheme on nominated trains.