Maligaon, May 28: The Shramik Special Trains which started operations from various locations of the country from 1st May 2020 onward are being run continuously as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) at the request of respective State Governments. Only those persons enlisted by the State Governments and brought to the station can travel on these Shramik Special Trains.
More than 50 Shramik Special trains arrived in various N.E. states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Assam till yesterday with more than 65000 stranded people of all the NE states. All the passengers of Shramik Special Trains are mainly students, patients, and migrant labours with their family members. Indian Railways has already run more than 3543 Shramik Special trains, carrying over 48 lakh passengers, till yesterday.
After the Shramik Special trains arrives in the jurisdiction of NFR for onward journey towards various locations in NE states, it is ensured that all the passengers get sufficient food and drinking water for the further journey period. From 7th May to 26th May a total of 240436 meals were provided to passengers of various Shramik Special trains at various location.
So, more than 12000 meals were provided daily in NFR area to passengers. While during this period, 205672 meals were provided by IRCTC, NFR also provided 34764 meals with own arrangement. It may be noted that number of meals provided in a particular train depends on the number of passengers and the route/journey time of the train. It was found that on an average about 1343 meals were provided to each of the Shramik Special trains each time.
Meals were supplied in stations where there is feasibility for the same and adequate manpower for distribution as well as monitoring is also available. Because, all protocols of COVID-19 has to be followed while distributing such meal to passengers.
In NFR area meals were provided in stations like Katihar, New Jalpaiguri, New Cooch Behar, New Alipurduar, New Bongaigaon, Guwahati,Lumding, Badarpur, Mariani and Tinsukia.
Apart from providing meal, watering of the train along with cleaning of toilets etc was also ensured at regular intervals so that passengers travelling in these trains don’t face any hardship.
