In a huge relief to migrant labourers stuck in various places across the country due to the lockdown, the Indian Railways on Friday started operating “Shramik Special” trains to transport them to their home states.
“Zonal railways to run these trains as per the demand of state administrations. Local DMs and DRMs are coordinating. Specific details can be obtained from the zonal CPROs” the Indian Railways said in a statement.
On Friday, it operated six trains from Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, and Rajasthan for transporting more than 7,000 people, including stranded labourers, pilgrims, tourists, and students.
Today, five more trains will run from Kerala today – two from Kochi and one from state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The departing station of the other two are yet to be decided. The train from Thiruvananthapuram is expected to leave at 2 pm and will run to Hatia in Jharkhand.
It has already run the first such train with 1,200 passengers from Hyderabad to Jharkhand at 4:50 am on Friday. The other five “Shramik Special” trains were — Nasik to Lucknow (9:30 pm), Aluva to Bhubaneswar (6 pm), Nasik to Bhopal (8 pm), Jaipur to Patna (10 pm) and Kota to Hatia (9 pm).
The trains, bound for Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were organised on request from the respective states, Railways said in a statement.
Shramik special trains services that started on Friday will run as and when required by the state governments, following the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“In continuation of the measures taken in the wake of COVID-19, it has been decided that the cancellation of all passenger train services on Indian railways, that is mail/express, including premium trains, passenger trains, suburban trains and trains of metro railway Kolkata shall be extended till 14 May, 2020,” an official statement by the ministry said.
Following demands of the state governments to run specials, the Indian Railways on Friday said it has decided to run ‘Shramik Special’ trains from Friday to move the stranded labourers, pilgrims, tourists and students.
The railways also clarified that the Shramik Special trains are meant for “nominated people” identified and registered by state governments and “nobody should come to stations looking for trains”. The railways will not issue any tickets to any individual or entertain any request from any groups.
Railways Executive Director Media RD Bajpai in a statement said as per the guideline issued by Ministry of Home Affairs, it has been decided to run “Shramik Specials’ from Labour Day. Senior Railway and Home Ministry officials had met on Thursday to discuss the issue.
Each “shramik” train will carry between 1,000 and 1,200 people to ensure social distancing during travel. All passengers will be screened for Coronavirus symptoms prior to boarding and only asymptomatic people will be allowed to travel.
The Railways has also made it mandatory for every passenger to wear a face mask. Also, all passengers would be screened on arrival as well and those showing symptoms would be quarantined.
Students have been told to bring identity cards and texts from district magistrates will also be accepted as tickets.
Lakhs of migrant workers, students and others had been left stranded – without jobs, money, food or shelter – in states far from their own after the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25.
Following requests from various states, the Central government on Wednesday announced allowing the movement of migrant workers, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places, by special trains.
The Government had on Wednesday issued an order to all the States and Union Territories to facilitate Inter-State movement of stranded people including migrant labourers in the country. While allowing the same, the Ministry of Home Affairs had stated that “buses shall be used for transport of a group of persons, of course, after proper sanitization and maintaining social distancing norms in seating”.
However, the decision to ply trains came after many state governments stated that transportation of labourers by buses was “impractical and not feasible”.
Meanwhile, the national transporter has suspended the regular services of the passenger, mail and express trains till May 17. Only freight and Special parcel trains have been allowed to ensure supply of essential items.
The third phase of the lockdown will continue till May 17, and was announced ahead of the lockdown 2.0 ending on May 3. The government took the decision after a comprehensive review, and in view of the lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in the country.