Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 1 (ANI): Indian Railways make every endeavour to provide clean, hygienic, well ironed good quality linen/bedrolls to all passengers travelling in air-conditioned (AC) sleeper classes by using the latest state-of-the-art technology for good passenger experience. Linen provided to the passengers during the train journey is washed in mechanised laundries/ washing facilities after every single use, CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway said.

Recently Congress MP Kuldeep Indora raised the question of whether there is a lack of cleanliness of bedding provided by the railways to its passengers to which Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw replied that Indian Railways make every endeavour to provide clean, hygienic, well-ironed-good-quality linen/bedrolls to all passengers travelling in air-conditioned (AC) sleeper classes by using latest state-of-the-art technology for good passenger experience. Linen provided to the passengers during the train journey is washed in mechanised laundries/ washing facilities after every single use.

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Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway said that blankets provided to passengers during train journeys are normally washed at least once in a month and it gets further reduced to 15 days or further depending upon necessity.

"An additional bed sheet is also provided in the bedroll kit to each AC passenger - one for spreading over the berth and second to use as cover to the blanket. Reservation against cancellation (RAC) passengers are also provided with complete linen set at par with other bone-fide passengers travelling in the coach. The temperature of the AC coaches is kept around 24 degrees centigrade so that it would not require a blanket and bed sheet is more than sufficient. Northeast Frontier Railway has also taken several steps to provide clean linen/bedrolls to passengers. Several state-of-the-art laundry care centres are functioning at important locations spreading all over NF Railway," Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said.

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He further said that another new laundry care centre has been set up at Guwahati which has a production capacity of 16,000 bedroll packets per day.

"This will cater the growing linen requirements of Guwahati-based trains. The state-of-the-art laundry at Guwahati is a tunnel-based system which has numerous features, including the capability to handle large volumes of linen while optimising usage of water, power, steam and chemicals along with automatic transfer to subsequent stages. Indian Railways has taken several initiatives to provide clean and hygiene bedrolls for the comfort and safety of passengers during train journey. Railways initiatives also include procurement of new linen sets with improved Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) specifications that have tighter tolerances to ensure better quality," Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said.

"Mechanized laundries have been set up to ensure supply of clean and hygienic linen sets, standard machines and branded chemicals are used for washing of linen items and Whito - meters are used to check the quality of washed linen items. Moreover, war - rooms have been established at zonal headquarters and divisional levels to monitor and to take prompt action on complaints lodged on Rail Madad portal including complaints on linen & bedroll. With these practices in place, the railways aim to enhance the comfort and safety of passengers," Sharma added.

He also said that Indian Railways has also emphasized improvement in logistics for storing, transportation, loading and unloading including eco-friendly packaging of bedrolls. The blankets used in Indian Railways, as per current specifications, are lighter, easy to wash and provide good insulation to passengers for an overall comfortable journey experience.

"It is also to be mentioned that no used and unwashed linen, under any circumstances is provided to the passengers during train journey," the CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway said. (ANI)

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