1 lakh linen items vanish from SCR trains in 4 years, bill runs into crores | Hyderabad News
HYDERABAD: At a time when more air-conditioned coaches are being added to its fleet, South Central Railway (SCR) is grappling with a different kind of runaway loss — hundreds of bedroll items disappearing from its trains every day.An RTI filed by TOI has revealed more than one lakh linen items, including bedsheets, blankets, face towels, pillows and pillow covers, have gone missing from trains across SCR over the past four years, resulting in losses running into crores of rupees. More concerning for the railway zone is the sharp rise in shortages over the years.
No passengers penalised
The figures, however, cover only two of SCR’s three divisions — Hyderabad and Nanded. The Secunderabad division is yet to furnish its data. Given the size and operational scale of the Secunderabad division, the final tally of missing linen could be significantly higher.Among the many items disappearing from trains, the woollen blanket appears to have become one of the biggest casualties of this linen vanishing act.In the Hyderabad division, reported cases of missing woollen blankets surged from 457 in 2023-24 to 4,258 in 2025-26 — an increase of nearly 1,000% in just three years.70% Nanded div blanket thefts in last FYThe trend is equally striking in the Nanded division. Nearly 70% of all blanket thefts recorded there over the past four years were reported in the last financial year.Face towels account for the highest number of linen shortages, followed by bedsheets, according to railway data, highlighting the extent to which items meant for passenger use are disappearing from trains.Despite the scale of the missing linen, there is no record of any passenger being caught or penalised for stealing railway linen in the Hyderabad division.Instead, the responsibility for missing linen is being fixed through the contractual system under which coach attendants are tasked with handling and collecting the bedrolls.SCR officials said coach attendants engaged by the contractor are responsible for the collection and handling of linen as part of their assigned duties. However, the attendants are not individually penalised when shortages are detected.“Wherever shortages or missing linen items were noticed and responsibility was attributable under the terms and conditions of the contract, penalties or recoveries were imposed on the concerned contractor. Such penalties and recoveries are imposed in accordance with contractual provisions and railway rules,” said a senior SCR official.The growing disappearance of linen has also raised concerns among travellers’ associations, particularly at a time when the railways has been reducing sleeper-class coaches to make room for more AC coaches on trains.“We had earlier represented to senior railway officials that face towels should not be provided to passengers as they are frequently stolen. Though the railways stopped supplying them on some trains, the practice continues on others,” said Noor Ahmed Ali, president of the Long Trains & MMTS Travellers Association.“Passengers travelling in AC coaches should use the linen responsibly and ensure that railway property is not taken away,” he said.
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