Premium train Vande Bharat’s catering service faces huge criticism over the poor quality of food served to the passengers. In the most recent incidents, a traveller was served a chickpea curry that was made with “no oil and no mirch masala” and in another complaint a dead cockroach was found in the meal.
“Thank you @AshwiniVaishnaw ji for providing healthy food with no oil and mirch masala on the Vande Bharat train,” the person named Kapil wrote on X. It has got more than 2 million views since posted. However, the details of the train and the route are not known yet. People have criticised Indian Railways in the comment section over repeated complaints of similar incidents.
One person wrote, "Proper protein meal," to which Kapil replied: "With the daily requirement of water for an adult." Another user said, "What is this? Boiled chana in panipuri water." "First, I thought it was Rassagulla, but when I zoomed in, I noticed it's chola," said the third comment.
This is not the first incident reported over the quality of food served by IRCTC in premium trains. A few weeks ago, a passenger from Rani Kamlapati to Jabalpur alleged that he had been "traumatised" by seeing a dead cockroach in the food served to him. The passenger lodged an official complaint with the West Central Railway after getting down at the Jabalpur Railway station. In response, IRCTC had written an apology to the complainant and announced that they have imposed a significant penalty on the responsible service provider.
Another video was shared in the beginning of January 2024, where the passengers of a Varanasi bound Vande Bharat train were seen asking the train's staff to take back the meal served. It was said that the food was of bad quality and could not be consumed. Last year in July, another regular passenger of Vande Bharat named Himanshu Mukerjee, expressed his dissatisfaction over the degraded quality of meal. He said that the meal served during the inaugural run of the train was “delicious” but in his next journey he was served “stone hard paneer, cold food and stale salty dal.”