IRCTC ties up with KFC; in talks with Pizza Hut, Subway

NEW DELHI: Passengers used to stale fare on Indian trains may finally get some relief as some of the top fast-food chains in the country are boarding the band wagon. After pizza maker Domino's, American chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), has tied up with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to serve consumers on trains.

At present, the facility is available on 12 trains passing through New Delhi railway station and will be expanded to Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad (Kacheguda) and Bangalore (Yeshwantpur) stations over the next 10 days. The service will initially be limited to trains, which lack pantry cars and subsequently be expanded to trains such as, the Rajdhani and Duronto. Consumers will have to visit the IRCTC website or call a toll free number to place their order.

"It's still early days and we will take time to scale up," Dhruv Kaul, CMO at KFC India told TOI. "The sheer number of people that travel by train is an interesting proposition for us."

The Indian Railways operates around 12,500 passenger trains every day with nearly 1.3 crore passengers. In contrast, the largest burger chain in the country, McDonald's, serves 32 lakh consumers annually.

Despite the potential, the logistics of train delivery — late trains and crowded platforms — is something that fast-food chains are still working on. Domino's, which began train deliveries in February and has expanded the service to around 200 trains, has managed to sell only around 350 pizzas. "The operations have to be worked on. But we are used to entering new areas," said Kaul.

It has also been learnt that IRCTC is in talks with other chains such as, Pizza Hut and Subway for similar services.