Litti-chokha being served to passengers at Patna Junction. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 24: Our favourite dish — litti-chokha — is back on track, literally.

The railway’s new litti-chokha kiosk that upped shutters yesterday on Patna Junction’s platform number 1 has struck an instant chord with the passengers and other visitors to the railway station.

In a day-and-a-half, more than 2,000 littis have been sold, informed Vijay Kumar Pillai, the cook at the kiosk.

This is the second litti-chokha kiosk at the station. The first one, opened on platform 1 by RJD chief and former Union railway minister Lalu Prasad in 2006, shut down last year.

The decision to open the new kiosk was taken following Indian Railways’ new catering policy 2010, which states efforts should be made to promote local food.

The pilgrims of Shravani Mela are also not losing out on the delicacy, as the workers at the kiosk have been instructed to prepare the delectable dish without onion and garlic.

The regular passengers too are not missing the condiments, suggest the sale figure which is peaking every hour.

Two pieces of litti with chokha (a mixture of roasted brinjal and tomatoes, boiled potatoes, green chillies and ginger) is priced at Rs 5. That’s not all. You can also dig into a plateful of ghugni with two pieces of litti for Rs 6 and if that doesn’t satiate your appetite, shell out Rs 20 and savour a plate of fresh dahi-chura.

Pillai, from south India, has been assigned the task to prepare the dish at the kiosk. On the customers’ flow to the new kiosk, Pillai said: “We have registered tremendous sale in a day-and-a-half. Passengers are coming in huge numbers. Once the month of Shravan is over, we will start to add onion and garlic to litti-chokha to enhance its taste.”

He added: “I am from south India but it does not mean that I don’t know how to prepare litti-chokha. It is all about knowing flavours and the art of cooking. If the dish is not tasty, the passengers would not visit the kiosk again.”

The passengers are clearly happy. Ramesh Kumar, who was waiting for a train at Patna Junction, said: “We missed the litti-chokha kiosk that earlier used to operate on the same platform. I don’t know what went wrong with that but now I am happy that the railways realised the importance of local food and started a new stall. Local food should always be given importance.”

Ramesh somehow saw a hand of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was the railway minister before Dinesh Trivedi, behind the closure of the earlier kiosk.

He said: “If you go to any railway station in the south, you will find an array of dishes like dosa and idli at the stations. Lalu Prasad understood the taste of Biharis and he did a good work by opening litti-chokha kiosk at the station. After all, it’s a matter of state pride. However, when Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister, she stopped this practice.”

Naresh Nath, a devotee of Lord Shiva, said: “We thank the railways for taking us into consideration. We appreciate that litti-chokha is being served without garlic and onion. Otherwise we had to sustain on fruits and vegetable.”

Divisional railway manager, Danapur, L.M Jha said the railway will open more kiosks on the other platforms in coming days.