Around 42,000 stranded people return home in NFR areas

Around 42,000 stranded people reached the areas under the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) by 36 Shramik Specials from different parts of the country, officials said on Wednesday.

NFR's Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Subhanan Chanda said passengers included students, patients and migrant labourers with their family members. He said these Shramik Specials mainly came from areas like Kozhikkode (Calicut), Kota (Rajasthan), Jaipur, Nandurbar (Maharashtra), Hisar, Surat, Vadodara, Bharuch (Gajarat), Ghatkesar (Telangana), Ludhiana, Ambala, Aligarh, Rohtak, Kalyan, Bhiwani, Jalandhar and Bengaluru.

Passengers were given free meals and water during the journey.

The NFR operates in six of the eight northeastern states, excluding Meghalaya and Sikkim, and in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts in north Bihar.

Out of 36 trains, 17 arrived at Katihar, nine at Purnea, five at Arariya and three at Kishanganj stations of Bihar with stranded people from various locations of the country.

Two more trains arrived in Agartala (Tripura) and in Jiribum (Manipur) with stranded people of those states.

The CPRO said four such Shramik Specials are planned to reach various stations of Bihar within the NFR area in the next 2-3 days. Another two such trains one bound for Mizoram and another for North Bengal are also scheduled to reach the respective states with stranded people soon.

In Agartala, West Tripura District Magistrate and Collector Sandeep Mahatme N told that among around 1,200 passengers, who don't show any coronavirus symptoms would not be quarantined and allowed to go homes.

"Those passengers who are symptomatic would be tested and be kept in institutional quarantine centres, according to the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the train passengers," said the DM, who supervised all formalities at the Agartala railway station.

( With inputs from IANS )