As we all know, the pandemic has had an enormous impact on the laundry industry world-wide. However, Indian Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) laundries – which work solely for the Indian Railways – have been struck extremely hard.
When the Indian Railway Ministry recently decided against the supply of passenger linen, once train services would resume in a limited manner, the situation for these laundry operators became catastrophic. The Indian Railways Company set up an Executive Director-level Committee with representatives from all parties concerned to look into this matter and suggest remedies. Alok Kumar Tewari – retired Principal Executive Director, Environment & Housekeeping Management at Indian Railways – recently explained how these laundry operators could be helped during the pandemic and in the post-COVID future.