Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the Indian Railways washes the blankets provided to train passengers at least once a month. He also informed the house members that an additional bedsheet is provided in the bedroll kit for its use as a quilt cover.

Vaishnaw gave out the information in response to a question raised by Congress MP Kuldeep Indora’s question, who asked if the railways washes the woollen blankets only once a month even though the passengers are paying for bedding that meets the basic hygiene standards.

“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,” the Railway Minister said in a written response to the question, according to PTI.

His response also stated other measures taken to ensure passenger comfort and safety, including procurement of new linen sets with improved BIS specifications to ensure better quality, mechanised laundries to ensure supply of hygienic linen sets, use of standard machines and specified chemicals for washing of linen, and monitoring linen washing activities.

“Whito-meters are used to check the quality of washed linen items and the codal life of linen items has been reduced from the previously prescribed duration to allow quicker induction of fresh items, Vaishnaw’s response stated.

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War rooms for bedroll complaints

Ashwini Vaishnaw also said that the Railways has established ‘war rooms’ at zonal headquarters and divisional levels to monitor complaints lodged on the RailMadad portal, that also include complaints on linen and bedroll provided to the passengers. According to him, prompt action is taken on all such complaints.

He also told the house that the Railways is using improved logistics in order to store, transport, load and unload the linen at the stations and in the trains, besides the whole process of using eco-friendly packaging.