Not every passenger travelling in long distance trains on Western and Central Railways are getting linen blankets, towels, bed sheets and pillows, despite Indian Railways have resumed its supply. In fact for full-fledged resumption for passengers inside all long distance trains could take around 2 months or so. This comes at a time when from April 7, provision of linen will be made available inside the premium Rajdhani and August Kranti trains. Currently 28 percent of bed rolls are available on CR and WR.
The Central Railway requires 4.70 lakh bedrolls in their long distance trains although 1.14 lakh or so bedrolls are available in stock. Likewise the Western Railway has requirement of 4.50 lakh bedrolls but they have a stock of 1.40 lakh bedrolls. The railway officials explained that for two years during Covid-19 pandemic, the linen washing plants were non-operational and it needs overhauling.
“There are some parts that we need to procure from Europe for repairing and restarting the machines meant for washing linen,” said a senior railway official.
There are around 13 laundry and linen washing plants on Central Railway and Western Railway having a total washing capacity of over 95 tonnes. These are located at Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Wadi Bunder and Grant Road within Mumbai while rest of them is in different cities of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The WR has 7 washing plants which can wash around 50 tonne of linen every day. The CR has 6 washing plants that have capacity to wash 45 tonne of linen daily. The WR officials claim that they are going to restart one BOOT (Built, Own, Operate, Transfer) laundry at Ahmedabad and four departmental laundries at Grant Road, Surat, Indore and Junagarh at the earliest.
“All these laundries need repairs and servicing of different degrees, as they were idling for more than two years. Two new laundries at Rajkot and Wadi Bundar are also under process. The work orders for these repairs have already been placed,” said a WR official.
Meanwhile, the process for entering into the linen washing and distribution contracts has also begun. In the initial stages this work will be carried out through smaller contracts. The maximum capacities of washing plants are in Ahmedabad at 16 tonne, Kurla LTT at 13 tonne while others have lesser capacities. The one at Kurla LTT is expected to start from April 1 and contracts are being put in place.
Both, CR and WR have already begun providing bedroll and linen to passengers in few trains. And starting April they will be augmenting the supply of linen in more trains. For instance from April 7, the CR and WR will provide linen in Rajdhani, Vidarbha Express, Punjab Mail, LTT-Puri Express, Lucknow Superfast, Habibganj Express, Augustkranti Express among others.
The railway officials claim that over the past few days, there is an increase in number of AC coaches and even trains since Covid-19 restrictions were eased. Due to increase in coaches, the WR require loading of 65000 bedrolls on a daily average which used to be 45000 bedrolls pre-Covid while each train requires an average of 459 bedrolls.
During the first and second waves of Covid-19, when trains weren’t available for all and linen washing plants were discontinued for two years of Covid-19 pandemic. Those passengers travelling were expected to bring their own blanket, bed sheet, napkins and pillows. However earlier this month, the Indian Railways issued orders to resume supply of linen to passengers; yet complaints are galore of linen’s unavailability to passengers which is seen on social media.
