The scuffle had resulted in the death of a 53-year-old Railway Police constable.

When the newly-inducted Ludhiana Shatabdi pulled in at the station on Monday morning, catering staffers tried to cross the tracks from platform no. 1 in their rush to meet deadlines. Policemen deployed at the site objected, leading to a tussle between catering manager Dhanpat and a policeman. Even as Dhanpat now cools his heels in police custody, the Railways have ordered an independent probe — sparking off a debate on streamlining the catering system.

Catering officials said that the New Delhi Railway Station services around 100 trains on a daily basis, and they could never meet deadlines if the supplies were to be carted through pathways. “Considering that the platforms are about 700 metres long, to cart food supplies one has to walk all the way down and then onto the respective platforms. It is time consuming, and not practical,” said a catering manager.

Officials said things get particularly difficult early in the morning, when a number of Shatabdis and inter-city trains are slotted to depart. “The food supplies are loaded as and when they arrive on trains that leave one after the other. We are usually racing against time during the morning hours, due to which we have to pass them across the tracks from platform number 1 — on the top of which there is a base kitchen,” another catering staffer said.