Accordingly affluent AC passengers are the prime suspects as over 21 lakh towels, bed sheets, blankets and other items went missing from air-conditioned coaches during 2017-18. As official said “The passengers are suspected to have made off with precisely 21,72,246 "bedroll items" including 12,83,415 hand towels, 4,71,077 bed sheets and 3,14,952 pillow covers from trains across the country in the last fiscal. Besides, the Railways found 56,287 pillows and 46,515 blankets missing from the AC coaches in this period”.
A senior official said "Together, the missing items are estimated to cost over Rs 14 crore”. Meanwhile in the light of the thefts, especially of towels, the Railways has decided that the face towels given to passengers travelling in air-conditioned coaches will be replaced with cheaper, smaller, disposable, takeaway napkins. Furthermore the Railways has already started changing the cover of blankets in some sections while the frequency of washing is being increased from monthly to fortnightly and weekly.
Moreover there is also a move to increase the frequency of washing of blankets to begin with and replacing the existing ones with the newly designed lightweight blankets made of soft fabric in a phased manner. Accordingly the plan envisages improvement of linen management with the aim of providing clean, hygienic and good quality linen to passengers travelling in AC classes.
