Promoting the vision of converting waste to wealth, the Delhi division of Northern Railway is in the process of developing four train-themed restaurants with private entities at four stations in Delhi. 

The first restaurant was opened at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS), outside the Ajmeri Gate platform on January 2, 2024. A similar restaurant will come up inside a coach at Anand Vihar, and plans are on for one in Old Delhi and Chanakyapuri stations. 

“The idea behind this concept is not just to enhance the experience of the people visiting the railway stations but to also increase the revenue of the railways,” The executive adviser to the divisional railway manager, Prem Shankar Jha said. 

The restaurant towards Ajmeri Gate on platform 16 can accommodate 48 people. According to the contract, the railways will get a revenue share of around Rs 65 lakh annually from each such restaurant. It is an effort towards sustainability, Jha added.

The restaurant at Anand Vihar railway station is expected to be ready by February-end, and the others at Old Delhi and Chanakyapuri stations by March-end.

“We have given the coaches for it. The vendors are preparing it from inside as a lot of modification has to be done before it can be used,” a senior northern railway officer said.

The coaches have been set up in a way so that passengers entering the station as well as visitors who are not boarding any train can spend time without entering the paid area of the platforms.

Similarly, West Central Railway converted an old, nonfunctional coach into a ‘Coach Restaurant’ at Jabalpur station in November last year. The facility offers in-coach dining & outdoor takeaway fast-food counters as well.

Notably, the Delhi division of Northern Railway serves states like Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, Delhi Division, and has a route kilometerage of 1,386.82 with 213 stations. The division handles 496 passenger-carrying trains and 210 freight trains regularly. 

Food-on-wheels 

In November 2023, a rail coach restaurant under the Indian Railways’ food-on-wheels concept was inaugurated by Divisional Railway Manager Indu Dubey at the Pune railway station.

The “restaurant on wheels” is housed in an old railway coach located near the parking lot behind the main building of Pune railway station. The round-the-clock restaurant with attractive design and decoration has a dining place with 10 tables that could accommodate 40 patrons. 

Under the ‘food-on-wheels’ concept, India’s first restaurant was started at Margaon station, followed by the second at Asansol railway station in West Bengal in February 2020. The Central Railway started “restaurant on wheels” in Mumbai and Nagpur. The first restaurant in the Pune division was opened at Chinchwad railway station in December 2022.