NEW DELHI: If your railway blanket smells like it hasn’t been washed in a month or two, well, it hasn’t. And confirmation comes from MoS railways Manoj Sinha, who admitted in Rajya Sabha on Friday that blankets are washed every two months.
Fortunately, bed sheets and pillow covers are washed daily. The minister’s reply was in response to a query regarding the quality and hygiene of linen supplied by railways. As members recalled their own experiences with railways, House chairman Hamid Ansari remarked in jest that people perhaps needed to start carrying their own bedding. Sinha said it was “good advice”.
But it wasn’t all musty news. Sinha said that in about two years 85% passengers can get cleaner linen as Railways is setting up 25 more mechanized laundries.
Defending Sinha’s statement, the railways said blankets cannot be washed every day, which is why an extra bed sheet is provided to every passenger to cover it.
A railways official said blankets are ‘sanitized’ every 15 days to kill germs and odour. Indian Railways has also started a bedroll takeaway scheme under which a passenger can book a kit online — Rs 110 for a blanket, or Rs 140 for two bed sheets and a pillow — and take it home after the journey.
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