Good days coming with IRCTC offers for passengers. Get ready to feast on delicious food from Pind Balluchi and Landmark Hotel during your Train 18 ride ! Upping the game against airlines, Indian Railways and IRCTC are looking to offer food branded food from known restaurants on the Vande Bharat Express between Delhi and Varanasi. A senior IRCTC official exclusively told Financial Express Online that the menu is in the last stages of being finalised and that the food served to passengers will be from known restaurants in Allahabad (Prayagraj) and Kanpur. “We (IRCTC) are looking to tie-up with known restaurants and brands so that a premium experience can be offered to passengers of the Vande Bharat Express,” the official said.
According to the official the lunch for Vande Bharat Express will be loaded at the Allahabad (Prayagraj) station. This is expected to be from Pind Balluchi. The dinner on the return journey will be loaded from Kanpur station and is probably from a restaurant of the city’s well-known family resturant ‘Landmark Hotel’. However, the talks for this catering arrangement are in last stages, but a tie-up is expected soon, the official added. For breakfast, IRCTC is working on a mix of 3-4 food items such as vegetable cutlet, omelette, a special type of bread, quiche and doughnuts or lemon tarts. “There is no doubt that the menu on Vande Bharat Express will be a more premium and delicious one than on trains like Gatimaan Express,” the official added.
Passengers onboard the Vande Bharat Express will not be able to opt out of meals, except for those travelling between Allahabad (Prayagraj) and Varanasi. The fares of Train 18 or Vande Bharat Express are inclusive of the catering charges. The fare for the Executive Chair car of Vande Bharat Express has been kept at Rs 3,520 for Delhi to Varanasi trip, it will be Rs 3,470 for the return trip due the difference in catering cost. The Chair Car passengers will have to shell out Rs 1,850 and Rs 1,795 for Delhi to Varanasi and Varanasi to Delhi respectively.
As part of the above mentioned fares, passengers in the Executive Chair car will pay Rs 399 for the meals (Breakfast with morning tea, lunch) from Delhi to Varanasi, while those in the Chair car will pay Rs 344. On the return journey, people in Executive Chair car will shell out Rs 349 for the food (Evening tea with snacks, dinner), those in the Chair car will pay Rs 288.
Vande Bharat Express will be flagged off by PM Narendra Modi on 15th February from New Delhi. On its regular run (not inaugural), Train 18 will depart from Delhi at 6:00 AM to reach Varanasi at 2:00 PM, enroute stopping at Kanpur and Allahabad (Prayagraj) at 10:20 AM and 12:25 PM respectively. For the return journey the same day, Vande Bharat Express will leave Varanasi at 3:00 PM to reach Delhi at 11:00 PM, stopping at Allahabad (Prayagraj) at 4:35 PM and at Kanpur at 6:30 PM.
