Chennai Corporation Recommends Southern Railway to Cancel the Catering Contract of Vaigai Express & Guruvayur Express
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Civic body officials carried out the inspection after receiving a complaint from a family on Veerasamy Road in Egmore. The family said a building next door constantly reeked of rotting vegetables and faeces. When corporation health officers inspected the building, they found a large kitchen on the terrace near a bathroom.
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"There were vessels and vegetables on the terrace which was covered in sewage from the bathroom," said an officer who visited the spot.
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When they questioned the man in charge of the kitchen, they learned that the food was to be supplied to passengers on the Kerala-bound Guruvayur Express and the Madurai-bound Vaigai Express. Siva, 35, told civic body officials that he supplied food packages to R&Co and C K K Catering, two agencies under contract with Southern Railways'. Corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan immediately ordered the officials to seal the building and inform the railways about what they had found.
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"We have written a letter to the railways, warning that food prepared in such unhygienic conditions could lead to an outbreak of disease among passengers," an official said.
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Southern Railway officials reportedly promised the civic body that they would strike the two caterers off their list of food suppliers and suspend their contracts. However, they could not provide corporation officials with any explanation on how they had awarded the contracts to the firms without checking their facilities and the conditions in which they prepared food.
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An official said passengers make innumerable complaints about the quality and taste of food they are provided, but Southern Railway officials carry few quality control checks.
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Catering firms bid for tenders floated by the railways to supply meals aboard trains. Contracts are awarded on the basis of the caterer's track record and the lowest bidding price, but this is subject to clearance by a health inspector. Railways' health inspectors are supposed to inspect kitchens where food is cooked before the contract is issued.
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However, this is done only twice during the contract period.