More than 42,000 people transported
MALIGAON, MAY 13 (MExN): 36 Shramik Special Trains have reached NFR areas with more than 42,000 stranded people till May 13.
A press release from the NFR informed that passengers are being given free meals and water during the journey.
Subsequent to the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains, Indian Railways had decided to operate “Shramik Special” trains.
Only those persons enlisted by the State Governments and brought to the station can travel in these special trains and no individual can come to any Railway station on their own and board these trains.
These Shramik Special Trains which started operations from various locations of the country from May 1 onward are being run continuously as per the guidelines issued by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on end to end basis at the request of respective State Governments.
Passengers mainly comprised of students, patients and migrant labours with their family members.
Out of 36 trains, 17 trains arrived at Katihar, 9 trains arrived at Purnea, 5 arrived at Arariya and 3 arrived at Kishanganj stations of Bihar with stranded people from various locations of the country.
2 more trains arrived today. The included 1 at Agartala (Tripura) and another at Jiribum (Manipur) with stranded people of those states. These Shramik Special Trains mainly came from areas like Kozhikkode (Calicut), Kota, Jaipur, Nandurbar, Hisar, Surat, Vadodara, Bharuch, Ghatkesar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Aligarh, Rohtak, Kalyan, Bhiwani, Jalandhar, Bengaluru etc.
4 such Shramik Special Trains are planned to reach various stations of Bihar within NFR area in the coming 2-3 days. Another 2 such trains one bound for Mizoram and another for North Bengal are also planned to reach the respective states with stranded people of those areas in coming days.
All the passengers arriving by the Shramik special trains were received by respective civil administration of the states at Railway station after following all necessary Covid-19 protocols. All passengers were guided by RPF & GRP personal in queues after de-boarding from the train for proper screening by state government officials by maintaining social distancing. The station was properly barricaded by deploying adequate RPF, GRP, and local police personnel to prevent the entry of unauthorized persons.
Indian Railways has operated more than 550 “Shramik Special” trains and transported nearly 6.50 lac passengers across the country till 12th May, 2020.
