Food Service Quality in IRCTC Food Outlets: A Study of Delhi (N.C.R) Region

Indian Railway is a growth engine of Indian economy and contributes significantly in the growth of Indian economy and GDP. It is fourth largest transportation system in the world and it is also the largest employment generator, which employees more than 13 lakhs employees & during the year 2015, it carries 8.101 billion passengers. From past few decades the need and demand of customers has changed significantly and this is reflected in all sectors of economy who have transformed themselves from mere a service provider to customer oriented service providers. Indian Railway is not an exception. To keep up with the changing need and demand of customers, Indian Railway established Indian Railway Catering and Transport Corporation (IRCTC) in 1999. It is a public sector venture under Ministry of Railway which professionally manages hospitality and catering services on & off stations, on trains and global reservation system. Since then it is taking consistent steps towards improving service quality of IRCTC food outlets. Today it has over 200 food outlets. The present paper is an attempt to determine service quality through assessment of expectation and perception of the customers visiting IRCTC food outlets. This research also uses modified questionnaire based upon DINESERV model to study the difference between perceived and expected service quality.