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Railways are now using washable-friendly blankets in AC coaches which will be washed twice a month rather than once in two months. The Indian Railways was forced to take this decision as complaints of dirty blankets piled up. Recently a CAG report had highlighted the unhygienic use of blankets that are not washed for about six months.
The revised specifications mention that the material of the new blankets will be a mix of woolen and nylon. Therefore smelly blankets will be a thing of the past for AC passengers. However, the plan to increase the frequency of washing blankets will reduce the service life of blankets from four to two years. Moreover, the pricing of the blankets is expected to increase twofold.
A senior Railway Ministry official whose duty is to bring in regular washable blankets for train travellers said, the price of the currently used heavy woolen blankets amounts to Rs 400 and a price for the newly introduced fabric will be decided shortly. Due to the absence of price revision of the blankets for the past 10 years, the new material blankets will be costly.
Currently, the AC classes passengers are provided about 3.90 lakh sets of linen for use per day which includes two bedsheets, a towel, pillow, and blanket. Except for 1st class AC train passengers, the others do not get a changed blanket cover after every use. As per the rail order issued to all the zones, “These blankets with revised specifications should be washed preferably twice in a month subject to available capacity and logistics arrangements. In case of capacity constraints washing should be done minimum once in a month.”
The life of the blankets will be reviewed annually based on the frequency of washes and on field experience. Moreover, used blankets are regularly sanitised before reuse. A state-of-the-art mechanised laundries will be set up by the Railways at various stations so that the day to day washing requirements are fulfilled. Currently, there are 50 mechanised laundries operating at various stations and 10 more laundry machines will be launched shortly.
“Our aim is to provide washed blankets along with fresh linen in trains for each journey,” an official reportedly said adding, “Efforts are on for improvement of linen management to arrange clean, hygienic and good quality linen to passengers traveling in AC classes.”
(With inputs from IANS)
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