The railway ministry seems quite intent on washing its dirty laundry. So while the future of many of its mega-buck projects hang in balance, the ministry is in the midst of finalising a national bedroll policy that would ensure supply of, ?clean and crisp linen? to its passengers.

Tired of complaints about the dirty and torn bed sheets and towels provided on its trains, railways plans to empanel integrated bedroll suppliers who would be entrusted with the task of procuring, washing and supplying linen to each of the five railway zones. The suppliers would be selected depending on the number of bedrolls they can provide on a daily basis.

Upon being empanelled, they can bid for supplying bedroll to trainsoriginating from their respective zones. The entire bidding and selection process would take as little as a fortnight.

At present, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is responsible for supplying linen on trains. It has in turn, outsourced the job to licensed contractors. The railway ministry however feels that these contractors do not have sufficient resources to clean and supply bedroll in such large numbers, which has led to the current problem.

Along with providing a faster selection process, the railways hope that the policy would help address the problem of dirty and damaged bedroll that is often provided to passengers. ?It would be completely transparent and would allow the zonal railways to monitor the bedroll suppliers continuously,? an official said.

In fact, so intent is the ministry to get the policy through, that it has asked its commercial directorate, which is framing it, to finalise it as soon as possible.

But while the largest railway operator in the world is evaluating housekeeping measures, its house continues to be far from order. Major infrastructure projects such as the freight corridor, gauge conversion, modernisation of railway stations and loco and wheel factories continue to lag behind schedule. Apart from these, the ministry also has unfinished projects, estimated at over Rs 50,000 crore, pending from the past ten years.

In fact, even as all these projects threaten to go nowhere, the Standing Committee of Parliament on Railways met on Monday to review the railway?s progress on all these projects and to evaluate its performance so far in the 11th Plan period.