IRCTC, which provides ticketing, catering, and tourism services for Indian Railways, announced the collaboration with Swiggy through a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday. The partnership will be facilitated by Bundl Technologies Private Limited, Swiggy’s parent company.

“The IRCTC has tied up with Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Swiggy Foods) for supply and delivery of pre-ordered meals through IRCTC e-catering portal as a PoC (proof of concept),” an IRCTC statement read.

IRCTC-Swiggy partnership

To be implemented in stages, the service will be available at four stations in the first phase, with these being Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam.

It is, however, not known when the facility will be launched, as the filing states that the facility will be introduced ‘soon.’

IRCTC is already in a collaboration with Zomato for the supply and delivery of pre-ordered food at various railway stations: Kanpur, Lucknow, New Delhi, Prayagraj, and Varanasi. The agreement was signed in October last year.

How to order outside food on trains?

For this, passengers must enter their PNR (Passenger Name Record) number to access a variety of restaurant options available for their journey. Once they have made their selections, they must proceed to place their order, choosing to pay online or give cash on delivery. The ordered meals will then be delivered directly to the passengers’ seats.