Western Railway runs 500 Shramik Special trains to ferry around 7 lakh migrants back home

The Western Railway has successfully run 500 Shramik Special trains across the country till May 16, resulting in around seven lakh passengers reaching their home states.

Out of these special trains run to ferry migrant labourers, 349 trains were bound to Uttar Pradesh, 56 to Bihar, 39 to Orissa, 26 to Madhya Pradesh, 11 to Jharkhand and six trains each to Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and four to Uttarakhand, according to a press release issued by Ravinder Bhakar -- Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway.

A Special Shramik train was also bound to Mpur, West Bengal and Maharashtra. A total of 6,99,931 passengers have been ferried to their homes in different states of the country from May 2 to 16.

Bhakar stated that these Shramik Special trains have helped in facilitating faster movement of stranded labourers to their native places. On May 16, 61 Shramik Special trains were bound to states of Uttar Pradesh (45 trains), Bihar (five trains), Jharkhand (two trains), Orissa (four trains), Madhya Pradesh (two trains), West Bengal (one train), Chhattisgarh (one train) and Uttarakhand (one train). Out of these, nine trains were run from Mumbai Suburban section of Western Railway. Six trains were run from Borivali station and one train each from Bandra Terminus, Vasai Road and Palghar stations, the statement said.

From May 3 to May 16, a total of 47 Shramik Special Trains have originated from Mumbai Suburban Section. These trains were bound to Gorakhpur (10 trains), Jaunpur (11 trains), Gonda (four trains), Varanasi (four trains), Pratapgarh (two trains) and one train each bound to Jaipur, Meghnagar, Prayagraj, Bhagalpur, Pali, Falna, Sikar, Katihar, Darbhanga, Unnao, Purnia, Bikaner, Kishanganj, Howrah, Ballia and Khurda Road in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

These special trains had the capacity of 1,200 to 1,700 passengers with maintaining social distancing norms.

Under the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), proper thermal screening of passengers have been ensured before boarding the train. During the journey, passengers are also being given free meals and packaged drinking water, the statement further said.

( With inputs from ANI )