IRCTC partners with Swiggy for pre-ordered meal delivery at railway stations

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has joined hands with one of the largest food delivery platforms Swiggy for the delivery of pre-ordered meals by passengers commuting. The collaboration was announced through IRCTC’s filing with the stock exchange. This partnership is meant strictly for IRCTC’s e-catering portal. With this partnership, passengers will be able to get the corporation’s food delivered by Swiggy delivery partners at four railway stations, namely, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam, and Vijayawada.

This is the first phase and hence the limited number of railway stations. The delivery locations will expand to more stations in the near future upon the completion of this phase.

“The e-Catering service through Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Swiggy Foods) may be available soon,” stated IRCTC in a stock exchange filing.

The major objective of this partnership is to upgrade the food delivery experience of passengers commuting by the Indian Railway. Also, it is to be noted that this isn’t the first time we have seen such a partnership by IRCTC.

Last year, the corporation partnered with another food delivery giant, Zomato. The partnership served the same purpose, i.e. to make the food delivery experience more convenient.

This partnership was announced back in October last year and was for four other railway stations. These include the country’s capital New Delhi. Praygyaraj, Kanpur, Varanasi, and Lucknow.

With both partnerships, the Indian Railway’s catering arm appears to be opting for better and quicker deliveries of pre-ordered meals at railway stations considering that both giants are at the top of the game in food delivery services.

Such partnerships will indeed offer a boost to the food delivery business. For the unversed, IRCTC passengers can pre-order their meals on the ecatering portal of the corporation – ecatering.irctc.co.in. On the website, passengers can search their train by name or by adding their PNR number.

Then, they can choose from the meal options and order by completing the payment process. The food upon ordering should reach the nearby station, offering a convenient travel experience. Passengers also get to see the estimated time of the delivery. IRCTC has several food brands onboard such as Domino’s Pizza and Behroz Biryani alongside other restaurants and aggregators.