Bhubaneswar: In view of the decreasing number of the COVID-19 cases, Indian Railways had announced in second week of March 2022 to resume the services of bedrolls and linens in the trains and advised Zonal Railways to reintroduce the service for the convenience of the passengers.
In an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during pandemic period, Movement of passengers by trains was cancelled which imposed the restriction on linen, blankets and curtains inside the trains. Passengers in air-conditioned coaches of all trains were advised to bring their own blankets on long journeys.
Keeping in view the above, East Coast Railway has restored the services of linen, blankets and curtains inside the trains in a phased manner for the trains originating from its jurisdiction ensuring proper quality of linen.
To provide linens and bedrolls in all trains, East Coast Railway faced a major challenge. These include closure of Laundries in pandemic period, Contractual Service manpower to supply the bedrolls & linens to passengers in trains and other challenges.
Apart from this, purchasing new linen from cotton industries with brand name and logo is a hurdle for Railways. Immediate supply by industries is not possible. Even after facing many challenges, ECoR worked day & night to face the challenge for ensuring proper quality of linens.
Restarting the supply of Bedroll/Linen service in trains from 21st March’2022 in 18425/18426 Puri-Durg-Puri Express, East Coast Railway gradually improved with linen service in 30 pairs (60 trains) of trains by the third week of April, 2022 out of 67 pairs of trains originating from its jurisdiction. The trains include Six pairs of Daily trains, two pairs of bi-weekly, two pairs of tri-weekly, 15 pairs of weekly and 5 pairs of trains running 4 days & 5 days in a week. 7 pairs of trains from Bhubaneswar, 10 pairs from Puri, 4 pairs from Sambalpur and 09 pairs of trains from Visakhapatnam have now included in Linen & Bedroll service.
The trains originating from Bhubaneswar include:
Rajdhani Express, Hirakhand Express, Bhubaneswar-Junagarh Road Express, Bhubaneswar-Tirupati & Bhubaneswar-Pondicherry Express. From Puri are Puri-Durg Express, Neelachal, Nandankanan, Purusottam, Utkal, Puri-Jodhpur, Puri-Ahmedabad, Puri-Okha & Puri-Jay Nagar Express. From Sambalpur are Sambalpur-Varanasi, Sambalpur-Jammu Tawi, Sambalpur-Nanded and Sambalpur-Shalimar Express. Similarly from Visakhapatnam, the trains have now provided with Bedrolls/Linen services are Visakhapatnam-LTT Express, Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam-Digha, Visakhapatnam-Chennai, Visakhapatnam-Tata, Samata, Visakhapatnam-Kollam, AP Express trains.
