The Railway Board, in March 2007, had given additional responsibility of these two services to IRCTC.

“The basic idea behind handing over the bedrolls and cleaning of coaches and toilets to IRCTC was to provide integrated board services on trains,” said a source in the Railway Ministry. “However, the IRCTC apparently failed to cope up with the work pressure, as it was difficult to get both catering and coach cleaning work done with the same set of persons,” he added.

The rollback decision has been approved by the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who, of late, was peeved over the increasing number of complaints pouring in about poor maintenance of bedrolls or short supply of linen on running trains.

“Now onwards, the respective zonal railways will look after the bedroll and sanitation work, as the Railway Minister wants the IRCTC to concentrate only on catering services in trains and platforms, across the country,” the senior official averred.