More than one lakh linen items have gone missing from trains operated by South Central Railway over four years, according to data obtained through a Right to Information request, with the losses running into crores of rupees and the final tally still incomplete because Secunderabad division has not furnished its figures.
The missing items include bedsheets, blankets, face towels, pillows and pillow covers from trains across the railway zone. The data covers the Hyderabad and Nanded divisions, while the Secunderabad division, which operates at a large scale, is yet to provide its information.
The figures show a sharp rise in shortages, particularly involving woollen blankets. In the Hyderabad division, reported cases of missing blankets increased from 457 in 2023-24 to 4,258 in 2025-26. Face towels accounted for the largest number of missing linen items, followed by bedsheets, according to the railway data.
Nanded division also recorded a steep increase. Nearly 70% of all blanket thefts reported there over the past four years occurred in the last financial year, according to the figures cited in the RTI-based report.
The losses come as South Central Railway adds more air-conditioned coaches to its fleet, increasing the operational importance of linen management on trains. The missing items are supplied for passenger use in eligible coaches and are handled and collected by coach attendants engaged through contractors.
A senior SCR official said responsibility for shortages was fixed through contractual provisions when the loss could be attributed to the contractor. “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,” the official said.
In the Hyderabad division, however, there was no record of a passenger being caught or penalised for stealing railway linen, according to the report. The railway’s stated response has instead focused on recovering losses from contractors responsible for handling the material.
The issue has drawn concern from passenger representatives, particularly as the railway system reduces some sleeper-class coaches while expanding air-conditioned services. Noor Ahmed Ali, president of the Long Trains & MMTS Travellers Association, said the association had previously asked railway officials to stop supplying face towels because they were frequently taken away.
“Though the railways stopped supplying them on some trains, the practice continues on others,” Ali said. He also appealed to passengers travelling in air-conditioned coaches to use the linen responsibly and not remove railway property.
The available figures do not represent the complete loss reported across the zone because Secunderabad division’s data remains pending. The next material update will be the release of that division’s figures and the action taken by SCR on shortages identified through the contractual recovery process.
