New Delhi: Travelkhana.com, the e-catering service provider for Indian Railways passengers, is winning more and more hearts and has served over 7 lakhs of customers till date.
The top executives of the company revealed it at a recent meeting with the press, organized in the city.
Travelkhana.com is an online service that has tied up with hundreds of restaurants along the route of trains, to take orders and deliver food, fresh and hot to passengers at their seat, at the station of their choice.
TravelKhana offers customers plenty of choice in terms of menu, a feature that was totally absent in the usual food supply service by pantry cars. One can choose from South Indian, North Indian, Mughlai, Continental, Chinese, Rajasthani, as well as soft drinks, beverages and snacks. It also delivers popular fast food like Pizza. All passengers from small kids to the elderly will find tasty food choices on their journey.
One also has the chance to savour local delicacies along the way. “Graduate from a well-travelled person to a well-fed one,” said an executive.
TravelKhana partners with vendors after careful consideration based mainly on two criteria: tasty, clean and hygienic preparation of foods and efficient and timely service. Hygiene is a special consideration for non-vegetarian food as it has health concerns.
TravelKhana also serves those with special dietary consideration like Jain food or diabetics. It has a special package for those travelling in groups like students, pilgrims, office groups and wedding parties.
The company operates through three interfaces: a call centre interface, a website interface and a mobile app interface. The call centre remains open daily from 7 am to 10 pm.
To order, one has to provide PNR number and station code or name. Choose from the menu available and make payment online or via cash on delivery.
The website has a mechanism to track the running status of all trains so that meals can be delivered on time, fresh and hot. Today, the service of the website is not only for online food order in train but a slew of services like train timetable, tracking train running status and even ticket booking.
The saga of TravelKhana begins with the train journeys of its founder, technocrat Pushpinder Singh, who found a vast difference between demand and supply of decent food on Indian trains. He dreamt up TravelKhana to capitalize on this discrepancy.
Investing Rs 20 lakh of personal money and Rs 35 lakh of private start-up funding, TravelKhana was launched on a trial basis in five stations: Ajmer, Kota, Jaipur, Bhopal and Gwalior. The success of the venture saw Travelkhana expanding with confidence. Today, it serves over 6000 trains in over 800 stations and has clocked service to 7 lakh happy customers.
While launching its service, TravelKhana faced many challenges like customer-focused acquisition, training vendor partners for logistics, process and operations management and opposition from established players.
“We want passengers to enjoy their journey with unmatched choice of food and drinks, delivered in time at their seats. We are focusing on customer satisfaction with high-quality service,” said an executive on a concluding note.
About The Company: TravelKhana.com is a website providing e-catering service to passengers of Indian trains. It offers the customer fresh, safe and