TravelKhana

TravelKhana
Type of business Private
Founded 2012 (2012)
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Area served India
Founder(s) Pushpinder Singh
Industry Food, E-commerce
Services Food Delivery in Train
Website www.travelkhana.com

TravelKhana is an Indian service company, associated with Duronto Technology, headquartered in New Delhi. Its main business is providing food to order for passengers on Indian Railways. The company was founded in 2012 by Pushpinder Singh. The company's website has won an India Digital Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

History

TravelKhana was founded by Pushpinder Singh, who has a masters in computer science from BITS Pilani and a BTech from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi.[1][2] The concept is that of a food ordering platform, enabling rail passengers to order dishes from a menu by telephone or online. The meals are supplied by participating restaurants in the towns through which the train passes.[3]

Singh ran a pilot at the end of 2011 on the Ashram Express connecting Delhi and Ahmedabad.[4] Services started formally in August 2012, under the ownership of the Duronto Technologies company.[4] Funding consisted of a personal investment of Rs 2.2 million ($36,500) by Singh, and Rs 3.5 million ($58,000) from startup investor Matteo Chiampo, former COO at Eko India Financial Services.[5] Funding has also been obtained from Palaash Ventures and Google India’s managing director Rajan Anandan.[4]

Service offered

TravelKhana currently offers a call centre interface, a web interface, and a mobile app interface to passengers. Users can book their meal by providing their ‘Passenger Name Record’ (PNR) number through calling, website or mobile app. Customers can also place their order by entering their city pin code on the TravelKhana website and browsing for food from a list of items which is available at the same website. They can make payment either online or on delivery.[5] The company charges restaurants a commission of about 18–20 per cent on every order, and does not charge the traveller for the service.[1] When the train reaches the station specified, hot food is delivered to travellers at their seats. Payment can either be made online or when the food is delivered.[4] The food, which was initially delivered in the packaging provided by restaurants, is now wrapped in packaging provided by TravelKhana.[4]

Advantages claimed for customers include greater choice, quality and hygiene, and catering for special dietary requirements.[2][4] Using GPS-enabled mobile applications, the service tracks the progress of trains in order to ensure that meals are delivered at the right time.[4][6]

Coverage

Currently TravelKhana serves customers in more than 6,000 trains every day and in more than 500 cities in India,[7] and claims to have served meals to 383,921 train passengers.[8]

In partnership with Makemytrip, TravelKhana is developing a similar service on long-distance buses, starting in Delhi and the National Capital Region.[3][4]

Award

In 2013 the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) presented the company with an India Digital Award for Best Travel Website.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "IIT-grads who quit jobs to start own food-ventures", The Economic Times, 30 July 2014
  2. 1 2 "Food on the go", The Telegraph (Calcutta), 30 March 2014
  3. 1 2 "‘Berth’ of new food service for train passengers", The Financial Express (India), 27 July 2014
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Food On The Go", Businessworld, 8 July 2014
  5. 1 2 "Food on the move: Travelkhana.com makes train journeys delicious!", The Economic Times, 28 August 2014
  6. ↑ "Food portals open up options for train travellers", Business Standard, New Delhi, 28 August 2013
  7. ↑ "Food Feature: Online Meals Now on Track." India Today Travel Plus. Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd. 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-414564463.html
  8. ↑ "E-Catering for Rlys to Be Regularised Soon." Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India). McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-3393126891.html
  9. ↑ Champions of the Digital World 2013: Winners of the India Digital Award, Internet and Mobile Association of India
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