Travelling somewhere anytime soon? Preferably on Valentine’s Day? And are you going to be taking the train to your destination? Well, there’s some good news for you. Passengers travelling by trains will now be able to order their food or book their meals via WhatsApp. However, this feature is available for only selected trains. According to the ministry of Railways, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC)’s new e-catering services would be carried out via WhatsApp in two stages.
Firstly, IRCTC serves more than 50,000 meals on a daily basis, and as part of this new initiative, in the first phase, customers, after booking their tickets, will receive a WhatsApp message with all website details as part of their e-tickets, asking them if they wish to opt for IRCTC’s e-catering services. Through this option, passengers can book meals from restaurants available at the station that fall on their travel route, directly from the e-catering website. You need not download the catering app directly for this.
IRCTC has cleverly made use of the AI-powered infrastructures as part of India’s ‘Digital Revolution’ and which has been envisioned in the Budget 2023-24 where in the Second Phase of the initiative, IRCTC has enabled a two-way interaction platform for passengers using their WhatsApp numbers, through which passengers will have their queries, issues, and bookings sorted by the AI-powered chatbot.
The Ministry of Railways has announced that these services have only been enabled for a selected few trains at the moment, and that this feature will be expanded based on the customers’ feedback and suggestions. The main goal behind this initiative was to help make IRCTC’s services more customer-friendly. This new initiative will be offered via www.catering.irctc.co.in and IRCTC’s e-catering app ‘Food on Track’. Customers can place their orders via the following WhatsApp number: +91-8750001323. by sending a message to this number after which their orders will be delivered to their berths.
