Title - Hells Kitchen

Railways shrink cooking area for private eateries; fail to provide alternative in 2 yrs
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Employees operate out of unhygienic conditions in a 10x10 makeshift kitchen at Pune Railway Station Squashed between the swank eateries that line up on Platform Number 1 of Pune Railway Station is a 10x10 sq ft hole in thewall that doubles up as the 24-hour kitchen for the Railway’s Jan Ahaar eatery, as well as for food that is cooked to supply to six Mumbaibound trains.


What was a spacious kitchen was leased to pvt players Mirror is privy to the unhygienic conditions in which the staff operates — there are four burners that are used simultaneously, a small table that doubles up as a chopping board, along the corner is a wash basin meant for cleaning vegetables and an open make-shift cardboard box that is the garbage bin.

The room lacks ventilation, as a result of which it is filled with smoke, while a film of soot cakes up the chipped walls and a lone ceiling fan. Six cooks work round the clock in three shifts. They dish up a huge volume of savouries and large meals for at least 500 passengers every day.

“We start our day very early in the morning and have to keep up the pace of production in order to serve passengers of six trains that ply between Mumbai and Pune, as well as the Jan Ahaar canteen,” said Ramesh Chavan, manager of the Mumbai central kitchen.   “We have been demanding a bigger space for the last two years, as it is very difficult to manage in such a congested area given the volume of produce.”

Two cooks are employed for the Mumbai kitchen and one to look after the management.

“There is no space here to stock 10 kgs of potato, four kgs of rice grains, vegetables, eggs and milk that go into making large meals and hot beverages,” he added. Another cook at the canteen said, “We also have a shortage of staff in the kitchen. To cook only puri bhaji, samosas, vadas and cutlets we need 10 kgs of wheat and around 25 kgs of potatoes.”  

The cramped and soot-laden walls of the railway kitchen Following many complaints about the quality of food by passengers in July 2010, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) handed over the contracts to private players. Earlier, this space was exclusive to IRCTC canteens.

An old storeroom was made into a make-shift kitchen two years ago, when the original spacious kitchen was leased out to one of the private players that operate here.   When we brought this to the notice of the Chief Catering Inspector Anwar Kothiwale, he said, “Yes, we operate out of cramped quarters but we try to maintain the accepted norms of hygiene.

Given our persistence, we are likely to get space near the parcel office on Platform Number 1.” “Some of the trains do not have pantry cars and we have little option but to depend on the food on offer when we travel long distances.   The quality of the food does match up with the price we pay,” said Robert Rodricks, a passenger. Another traveller, Ranjana Tribhuvan said, “I have often come across cockroaches and flies in the food served on the train — a clear indication of the food that is being produced under unhygienic conditions.”

►  There’s no space here to stock 10 kgs of potato, 4 kgs of rice, vegetables, eggs, milk to make large meals