Train journeys have always been an exciting part of life in India. Since the first train started on 16th of April 1853, a new era in our country’s travel culture evolved. Today, nearly 8 Bn people use Indian railway network every year to travel.
Long train journeys with family and friends are a heartthrob for each one. It bestows time to share with our beloved ones, to talk over and get back memories. But ever since childhood, not one moment has been complete without special cuisines meant for us.
A couple of youngsters, have worked out a brilliant way to make your train yatra a delicious and complete one. Now train journeys will be the best of all because you can order your favorite food from your favorite restaurant and it’s delivered right at your seat in the train with the best quality and taste. The worry about packing and carrying food or waiting and limiting yourself to the menu of the train caterer or quality can all be forgotten.
Eleventh Hour Innovation, a Kochi based startup, founded by Arun Rajan and Rameez Ashraf, launched YatraChef in 2013. It is an Online Marketplace aggregator connecting the travelers of the Indian Railways to the best and finest restaurants, fast food chains and caterers across the Country, thus making it possible for the passengers to have the most flavoursome food even while they travel.
How Does it works?
All this is made possible with just takes few clicks. Once you log onto YatraChef website, just enter your PNR number or your train journey details in YatraChef website and you will be shown the food outlets available at different stations in your train travel route and you can choose the station where you want the food. Once you choose the station you will see the hotels and food outlets available to serve you. Now select the hotel and check their menu and pick your order. Once you have found what you want, you can either order the food through the website or call the multi lingual phone service to order through the food advisor.
Orders can be placed before or during the train journey and payment can be done online or on delivery of the food as per choice. With the lowest listed pricing and a transparent pricing structure, they give a price beat guarantee on online listed prices if their prices are higher. YatraChef has a highly intelligent ordering platform which splits and sorts up the menu to avoid order cancellations and ensure fast unhindered deliveries. It comes with special discounts, exciting rewards and newsletters especially to the registered users. A chat center is also available to assist users manually.
The Stats
As of now, YatraChef has tied up with more than 100 hotels about stations across the country. It has already served more than 10,000 passengers and is on a flare. ‘The market size is immense considering the fact that Indian railways is the lifeline of the country and moves more than 8 billion passengers annually. We are looking at an addressable market size of approximately 150 million customers who book their tickets online annually.’ says Arun Rajan, CEO of YatraChef, who did his Masters in Logistics and Operations from the University of Sydney.
“We have successfully defeated hunger in many stations and we have planned to defeat it in many more stations.” – YatraChef.
