day after the minister of state for railways, Manoj Sinha, admitted that blankets used in trains are washed only once in two months, railways on Saturday announced its plan to set up in-house laundries.
So far, the service has been outsourced to private contractors and the quality of linen supplied has deteriorated over the past few years as the railways didn't take any quality control measure.
Officials from Salem division of Southern Railways said an in-house laundry would be set up in Podanur, which also houses district's one of the oldest railway stations.
"Land is available in Podanur, so we decided to set up our first in-house laundry there," said the divisional railway manager, Shubhranshu.
"We in fact borrowed this concept from large hotels which have their own in-house laundry to ensure quality is controlled and maintained," he further said. The laundry would be operated on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. Once the contract is awarded, the awardee would have to build and acquire the necessary equipment on his own and operate it with assured business from the railways.
"The contractor gets to run it for 10 years after which he will have to transfer it to the railways," said the divisional railway manager. "He will have to equip the facility with large-scale washing and drying machines, along with machines for automated ironing and folding of sheets. Even the arrangement of kits should have to be automated," he said.
The tenders for the in-house laundry at Podanur, according to sources, has been issued. The target is to get the facility running by mid-2017.
"We expect the facility to be ready in a year from now if the tendering and contractor selection process are not delayed," said Shubhranshu.
The facility, he added, would have a capacity to handle one tonne of laundry per day and cater to eight trains. Train commuters have welcomed the idea of in-house laundry. "The linen, even in the two-tier AC compartments, look dirty and worn out," complained a 65-year-old Mettupalayam-based commuter. Chennai-based college student Aathmik Reddy agreed.
"They often come with stain marks. They have foul smell too," Reddy said.