Date:24/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/11/24/stories/2006112406600100.htm

Back Rlys serves special menu for diabetics, heart patients

Our Bureau

Healthcare special
The IRCTC-designed menu is to be implemented in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.
There WILL be no extra charges for such food

New Delhi , Nov. 23

If you are diabetic, have high blood pressure or are a cardiac patient, Railways would ensure that your diet does not go haywire while travelling in some trains.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the subsidiary of the Railways responsible for catering, has designed special menu for such patients, which it plans to implement in all Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. The menu has low-fat, low-oil content, sugar-free options, and food sans potato on offer.

Sample this: In soup, you would be served clear soups or rasam; the non-veg dish would be roasted chicken, steamed chicken with boiled vegetables, baked fish or poached fish; and the dessert would have citrus fruits or sugar-free ice cream, amongst others.

"IRCTC plans to implement this optional menu in all Rajdhanis and Shatabdis," Dr P.K. Goel, Managing Director, IRCTC, said here today. The menu has already been implemented on some Mumbai Rajdhani and Howrah Rajdhani trains — where the catering is done by IRCTC's departmental staff.

In other Rajdhanis and Shatabdis, where catering has been outsourced, the organisation is in talks with the parties concerned to implement the menu.

Cyclical menu

And, there will be no extra charges for such food. Other passengers too will get better fare — a cyclical menu has been designed in these trains. And depending on the day of travel, you could get paneer saagwala, paneer-do-pyaza or paneer butter masala in vegetarian options. If you want non-veg, trains can offer butter chicken, kadhai chicken or methi murg.