Facing flak over poor quality of bedrolls and sanitation services on board numerous trains, the Railway Ministry has decided to take back the responsibility of managing these two services from Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and hand them back to respective zonal railways.The decision, taken some time back, is being looked upon as Rail Bhavan’s larger plan of stripping IRCTC of its additional duties so as to make it focus exclusively on catering, which too is under a lot of criticism for it’s poor quality. IRCTC was handed over these additional responsibilities around March this year.The idea behind handing over bedroll management and cleaning of coaches and toilets to IRCTC stemmed from the ministry’s wish to have Integrated On Board Services on trains. “However, getting the same licensee to perform these works in addition to catering did not prove to be successful as it was found that separate space and staff were needed to manage bedrolls,” said a senior IRCTC official.Sources also said that having tried it out for four-five months, IRCTC realised the scandalous nature of having the same staff manning the kitchen and also cleaning coaches and toilets onboard running trains. “Since most of the licensees further sub-contract these tasks, the likelihood of the same person doing catering duties and cleaning the toilets were far more,” the official said.Having sent IRCTC’s managing director on a long leave earlier this year, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has on subsequent occasions indicated that his ministry would prefer IRCTC handling the catering aspect well rather than deal with too many things on its platter. As a result, many other duties being performed by IRCTC could be restored to the zonal railways in days to come.
