The passengers of Indian railway will now get fresh and warm food on railway stations as Indian Railway as IRCTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Defence Food Research Laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for Transfer of Technology of Retort Pouch Processed Foods so that ready-to-eat food can be warmed and eaten straight out of the packet.
- Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has started sale of Ready-to-Eat food packets at some of the Railway stations on trial basis. During the trial period the MRP has been kept at Rs.40/- per packet for all items.
- According to the terms and conditions enshrined in the MoU between DRDO and IRCTC, inter-alia, DRDO shall transfer the complete details of the technical know-how and testing method for quality assurance to IRCTC with requisite data on the functioning of the Retort Pouch Processed Food. DRDO also grants a non-exclusive license to utilize the Technology by IRCTC for manufacture in India for a period of 10 years. The title and ownership of the Technology including new variants, copyrights and intellectual property will rest exclusively with DRDO.
- DRDO shall depute experts/personnel free of cost for Technology Transfer Period not exceeding 10 mandays beyond which the service will be chargeable.
- IRCTC shall pay to DRDO an upfront Technology Transfer Fee at the time of signing of Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology along with the service tax in this regard. IRCTC shall pay Annual Royalty @ 2% on net sales to Indian Market and 6% on net sales for Export Market.
-
Steps were taken to improve the quality of food in Railways inter-alia that included, phased introduction of station based e-catering at all A1 and A category stations for widening the range of options available to passengers for ordering food of their choice, introduction of precooked food, operation of centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) for prompt redressal of passenger grievances relating to the catering activities .
