Guwahati, May 16 (MExN): As of May 16, 71 Shramik Special Trains have reached Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) areas with more than 82000 stranded people, an official statement informed today.
Passengers mainly comprised of students, patients, and migrant labours with their family members, said the statement issued by NFR ChandaChief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda. Passengers are being given free meals and water during the journey.
Out of 71 trains, 7 trains arrived in various Northeast states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Assam till May 16 with about 8700 stranded people and another 5 trains will be arriving within the next 2 days in these states, it added.
63 trains arrived in Bihar areas under NFR and 1 train arrived at New Jalpaiguri station in West Bengal under NFR.
The 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, Karamnasa, Mangalore Central, Moradabad, Namburu and various stations in Mumbai, Chennai etc, the statement added.
The NFR further informed that all the passengers arriving by the 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 and the stations were properly barricaded by deploying adequate security forces to prevent the entry of unauthorized persons, it said.
Few special trains are also planned for transportation of stranded persons from Northeast to states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka by respective state governments in the coming days.
Indian Railways has already operated more than 1000 special trains and transported more than 12 lakh passengers across the country till May 15.
The trains were operated after the Ministry of Home Affair’s order regarding the movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students, and other persons stranded at different places by special trains.
