OT: So how did TravelKhana come about?
Pushpinder Singh: I have travelled extensively and I’ve noticed there are some problems that are absolute nightmares for travellers, like finding a cab outside New Delhi railway station or JFK, and it’s the same with food. Most travellers think about food at the last minute even though it’s an important part of their journey. Yet it’s difficult to find hygienic and healthy food on our trains or in our railway stations. The needs of travellers make for a crucial marketplace and it’s critical to deliver to it. Moreover, the idea of solving problems appeals to me because I am primarily a technologist with a background in software engineering.

OT: Why food on trains?
Pushpinder Singh: Thirty-five million people travel on Indian trains every day. Granted, 20 percent of them are suburban commuters, but an estimated 7-8 million passengers are on long-distance trains. That’s an incredible number. Providing them with fresh, high-quality food for their journey is a very specialised sort of problem. TravelKhana now serves over 6,000 trains every day across more than 500 cities. We are still a small company, but this is the market in which we want to grow first.

OT: How does TravelKhana work?
Pushpinder Singh: Our customers can order food from us via our website, which is very easy to navigate even on a mobile, or via our mobile app, or they can simply call us. We have tied up with restaurants and caterers across India, up to 600-700 of them in some of our urban locations, so travellers can pick and choose what they would like to eat on their journey from our wide-ranging menu. What’s more, they can do it up to 30 minutes before they need their food. We take details such as their coach, seat and train number, or the PNR number, and food is delivered to them exactly as they want it. Payment can be made at the time of ordering or on delivery. So if you are taking the Tamil Nadu Express from Delhi to Chennai, you can have your lunch at Bhopal and dinner at Itarsi delivered to you, fresh and tasty. It’s simple and very user-friendly.

OT: How have passengers taken to the idea?
Pushpinder Singh: Very well, I must say. We have had a lot of good experiences. We have delivered birthday cakes to passengers celebrating on their journey, we have expat clients calling us to make sure preferred food is delivered to family elders who are travel­ling alone, we once supplied an entire trainload of food packets to people arriving for a political rally in Delhi, and we even get calls from passengers travelling on the Rajdhani and Duronto Expresses, where food is already catered. We rely greatly on feedback and work constantly on any grievances. Once, an order of 71 meals to be served at Jaland­har could not be met unavoidably, but we rallied and made sure they were supplied at Pathankot, with no advance, on an hour’s notice. This is a service industry and unless our customers are satisfied, our job is not done!

OT: Do you travel to keep tabs on how well things are working?
Pushpinder Singh: I used to, all the time. But now we have expanded too much for me to keep up. We have a team of 30 travelling expressly to make sure our systems are working well. I still get around a couple of times a month, but even that’s linked to vendor meetings and other developments.

OT: Have you faced any antagonism from existing service providers such as attendants working in pantry cars, catering contractors and so forth?
Pushpinder Singh: Yes, that was there, initially, but it’s okay now. We are a neutral organisation and we just want to provide the best service, so that’s our focus. Things smoothened out as we established our­selves as a reliable player who’s here to stay.

OT: Are there any well-known brands or restaurants that aren’t part of the TravelKhana network yet?
Pushpinder Singh: Domino’s and McDonald’s are the big names that come to my mind. We are trying to bring them on board, but they are American corpo­rates so some permissions and agreements are required, which haven’t happened yet.

OT: What next?
Pushpinder Singh: Buses, definitely. And airports too, eventually. We would also like to see trains have menus from which passengers can pick what they like, the way it works now on low-cost airlines. It [TravelKhana] is an enterprise without precedent and it needs to be formalised with enabling laws. Our interactions with senior railway officials have been cordial. They are primarily concerned about the safety and comfort of passengers. I won’t say I feel happy — I think I’m the sort of person who is never fully happy with everything! But I feel proud of where we are and what we have set out to do.

OT: And what interests you most when you aren’t at work or home?
Pushpinder Singh: I am a keen sportsman, actually. I used to run marathons, though I stopped for a while in the middle and I have returned to running only recently.

OT: What sort of food do you look for when you travel?
Pushpinder Singh: I personally enjoy local, authentic, street food wherever I go. It’s the best. That’s what I search for first. Or else, I crave really fine-dining, star experiences!

OT: What’s been your most memorable train journey?
Pushpinder Singh: I used to travel from Delhi to Varanasi by train when I was a student at IIT-BHU. The day before college reopened, the train used to be fully load­ed with students, who would board at stations all along the way. Those were really fun trips!

OT: Any train journey you have been wishing you could do?
Pushpinder Singh: The mountain train up to Ooty, through the Western Ghats — now, there’s an experience I can’t wait to try.