The Great Laundry Sham: Railways And 5-Star Resorts Have The Same Washerman

Adding the spice to the declared railway budget for this year, the laundry services is being handled and outsourced to the same people who are doing job for 5-star hospitality concerns and railways. This is a sheer example for the defaulted mechanism of maintaining the hygiene and healthiness towards passengers.

With quality of passenger services finding many a mention in the Railway Budget today, here are some of the services, with respect to linen, that you are entitled to:

• The linen you are provided in the train needs to be free of tough stains caused by spillage of food, misuse etc.
• The linen provided to you needs to be packed in environment friendly bags
• The linen kit provided to you has to have a minimum level of 75% whiteness index
• The washed linen should be hygienic, bacteria free, stain free and odourless.
• Railways needs to ensure there is enough buffer stock to cater to requirements of at least 2 to 3 days so that train services are not effected in case of delayed/short supply.
• Random test checks conducted by railway authorities to ensure the washed linen kits are in conformity with the guidelines

Do you really get all that? Chances are you don’t. So when Railway Minister Pawan Bansal promises to have mechanized laundry services to improve your on train experience you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

There’s more on the cleanliness front you miss. You are entitled to passenger feedback, which, according to the railways, is the ‘essence’ of the linen services. According to the policy guidelines issued by the railway board, the contractor who handles railway linen shall make arrangements for making feedback forms available to the passengers. Such feedback forms need to be obtained from at least five passengers per AC coach in each direction.

How many of you remember being handed a feedback form?

If during sampling checks conducted by railway authorities it is detected that the quality of washing/ironing of the linen is not satisfactory, a penalty of Rs 3 per such article of linen may be imposed on the contractor. Also, there won’t be payment of washing charges.

Further in the event of rejection of more than two percent of the linen provided on account of poor washing/ironing, the quantity of that particular lot of linen shall have to be washed again, for which no additional payment shall be made. If you register a complaint about unsatisfactory quality of washing, cleaning or ironing of linen, and the complain is found to be true, a penalty of Rs. 2,000 per occasion shall be imposed on the contractor.

Interestingly, one of the companies that manages laundry services for the Indian Railways is an American engineering company – Wotek. This company also provides laundry services to five star resorts that include The Trident, The Leelas, JW Marriott and Le-Meridien.

So have you ever experienced such quality services? hmmm.