New Delhi: Shramik Special trains, launched by Centre on May 1, ha gone a long way in alleviating the pain & sufferings of migrant labourers across the country. Stranded since lockdown began in March, they have been wanting to return home but weren’t due to restrictions in place.
However, the Indian Railways’ Sharmik Special trains have provided them much needed relief. Since May 1, migrant workers are being ferried back to their native places via these special trains.
Railways bring smile on migrants face
Today, the Indian Railways said that it has operated about 200 Shramik Special trains since May 1 and carried back home nearly 2 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
Railways has run 222 Shramik Special Trains for movement of stranded persons, more than 2.5 lakh people have made use of this facility so far: Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/M8JF8y5LwD
— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2020
41 such trains departed yesterday, including first train to originate from New Delhi carrying 1,200 migrant workers to Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh.
Railways said it ran 56 Shramik Special Trains on Wednesday.
Middle berths scrapped for social distancing
Every special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. But the Railways is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger.
Since the beginning of the services, Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations, followed by Kerala.
Among the receiving states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remained the top states.