Railways to Introduce Local Cuisine on Vande Bharat Trains

New Delhi: Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday chaired a review meeting with senior railway officials at Rail Bhawan to assess key passenger-centric initiatives and reforms in the ticketing system. Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries, Ravneet Singh Bittu, was also present at the meeting.

During the review, the Union Minister directed officials to introduce local cuisine of the regions being traversed in Vande Bharat trains. Emphasising passenger experience, Vaishnaw said serving regional food would reflect local culture and tastes, making train journeys more enriching for travellers. He added that the initiative would be expanded progressively to cover more trains across the network in the future.

The Minister also reviewed the ongoing crackdown by Indian Railways on train ticket bookings made using fake or duplicate identities. He noted that the stringent identity verification system introduced by IRCTC is delivering positive outcomes. As a result of these reforms, around 5,000 new user IDs are now being added daily on the IRCTC website, compared to nearly one lakh new IDs per day before the implementation of stricter checks.

Officials informed that the measures have already led to the deactivation of 3.03 crore fake IRCTC accounts. In addition, about 2.7 crore user IDs have been temporarily suspended or flagged for suspension due to suspicious activities.

Vaishnaw, along with Ravneet Singh Bittu, directed officials to further strengthen the ticketing system to ensure that genuine passengers are able to book tickets easily using verified and authentic user IDs, thereby making the reservation process more transparent, fair and passenger-friendly.