Quality meals on wheels, only a click away

How many times have you complained about the Railways’ food being bland or of poor quality, or thought about giving it a miss?

Worry no more. A new breed of entrepreneurs has alternate solutions – delivering choicest food in trains.

Be it Kochi-based YatraChef.com , Nashik-based Merafoodchoice.com or New Delhi-based TravelKhana.com , these start-ups are the answers to better meals on wheels. The passengers just need to place their order, over phone or through the Web site, and share the train details.

You can take your pick from a number of restaurants. Food will be delivered at select locations, mainly across major stations, with payments either on delivery or online.

“The idea is to provide people with quality food. We track trains on a real time basis and ensure delivery on seats,” Arun Rajan, CEO and co-founder of YatraChef.com told Business Line .

Working as market place aggregators, companies tie-up with restaurants, which in turn make the deliveries.

While Merafoodchoice has 300-plus tie-ups for delivery across 171 stations, YatraChef has 255-odd tie-ups for delivery across 120 plus stations (for individual orders).

Revenues are shared with the restaurant, and in some cases the end-user is charged a convenience fee.

Individual order sizes vary between ₹450 and ₹800, with the same going above ₹2,000 for groups. Orders can be as low as ₹100 depending on the partner restaurant.

For both Rajan and Merafoodchoice’s Piyush Kasliwal, it was a need-based idea. Rajan, while travelling in trains on a trip to India from overseas, suffered a bout of food-poisoning. Not wanting to eat on a train, he sought help from a friend, thus realising the potential. Meanwhile, Kasliwal, a Jain, found it very difficult to get appropriate vegetarian meals. He worked on the idea to set-up Merafoodchoice.com , which serves vegetarian food.

After gaining traction, YatraChef is now looking for PE funds and exploring delivery options on bus routes, on a pilot basis, over the next six months. Merafoodchoice is looking to consolidate its presence and strengthen its services.

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