The Bilaspur Railway has installed industrial laundry system to process an average 3300 kg of linen per day to cover all primary trains originating from Bilaspur coaching depot. The mechanized laundry was inaugurated by Kanta Kumar, President-SECRWWO in December 2012. Speaking to Clean India Journal, Sr DME-Bilaspur, Lalit Dhurandher said, “Quality of linen supplied to passengers traveling in AC coaches is one of the major passenger complaints. There was tremendous improvement in management of linen after the work was shifted from Commercial to Mechanical department in April 2010, but still expectations of passengers were not met with. Need for in-house laundry was felt and the experience of Wadi Bunder, Central Railway proved to be a success.”
Open tender for supply, installation and commissioning of laundry equipment was first opened on January 2011 but could not be finalised due to technical reasons. Second time tender was opened on September 2011 and was awarded to P&K Scientific Products Lucknow.
Mechanized laundry set up at Bilaspur consists of two high speed industrial washer cum extractor with a capacity 60kg/cycle with cycle time of 45min; two tumbler driers of 30kg/hr with cycle time of 45min; two flat work ironer of length 3000mm x diameter 500mm; dry cleaning machine with 12kg capacity for blankets; steam boiler with 600kg/hr capacity and operating temperature of 1840C; water softening plant with 5cu. m/hr capacity and also an ETP with 50KL/day capacity. The set up was opened up in December after regular trial.
