Waiting for a train at the New Delhi Railway Station in this heat? Now, you can cool off with a chilled glass of lassi (buttermilk) from a token operated vending machine.
Months after a water vending machine was installed at the station, it now has two ‘ lassi vending machines’ that have been placed as a pilot project on platform number 16. Similar machines are being planned at other railway stations too.
According to senior officials, Railways plans to introduce more of healthy and traditional beverages at railway stations to supplant aerated soft drinks. The lassi vending machine is the first step in this direction. The machines have been installed and will be operated by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) with Mother Dairy supplying the drink.
Since it is difficult to produce fresh lassi at the railway station, Mother Dairy will use the ‘bag-in-box model’ to deliver the drink to the railway station. “The bag as a whole goes inside the machine and is dispensed the same way as soft drinking vending machines,” said a Mother Dairy spokesperson. According to IRCTC, the vending machine, which started operating from Tuesday, is a hit. “On the first day, 300 glasses were sold within two hours and there was a queue,” he said.
“ Lassi is healthy as compared to aerated drinks. The vending machine would also help promote milk products. As the product is procured from dairy cooperatives, it will aid farmers’ welfare also,” said a senior IRCTC official.
He added that the vending machine had been in the pipeline for some time. “If the fresh lassi was packed as soon as it was prepared, it would have been necessary to add preservatives and that would mean it would not be fresh any more. This machine follows a concept where it vends fresh lassi that has been brought to the station,” the official said.
“The standardised lassi is put in air-tight bags and packed at the plant. It is then transported to the station and put into vending machines at Jan Aahaar outlets,” he said. “The drink is given in a pre-measured quantity in paper cups, which are environment-friendly. The product, however, has to be used within 48 hours,” he said.
Railways plans to introduce more healthy beverages to supplant aerated and fizzy drinks
