Maligaon, May 19: 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. No individual including stranded people and migrant labour can board these trains by coming to any Railway station on their own.
As of 19.05.2020, 110(one hundred ten) such Shramik Special Trains reached NFR areas with about 110000 stranded people. Passengers were given free meals, water and necessary medical help by railways as and when required during the journey.
All the passengers of Shramik Special Trains are mainly students, patients, and migrant labours with their family members. Out of 110 trains, thirteen trains arrived in various N.E. states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Assam till yesterday with about 17000 stranded people of all NE states Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Another 6-7 trains will be arriving within the next 2-3 days in these states with stranded people. While ninety three trains arrived in Bihar areas under NFR and 1(one) train arrived at New Jalpaiguri and three at New Cooch Behar stations in West Bengal under NFR till date.
In NFR areas under Katihar division of Bihar trains arrived at stations like Katihar, Purnea, Arraria, Kishanganj. Another eleven trains will be arriving in these areas of Bihar and one at New Jalpaiguri within next two days carrying stranded people.
These Shramik Special Trains mainly came from areas like Kozhikkode (Calicut), Kota, Jaipur, Nandurbar, Hisar, Surat, Sirhind Jn, Vadodara, Udaipur, Bharuch, Ghatkesar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Aligarh, Rohtak, Kalyan, Bibinagar Jn, Bhiwani, Jalandhar, Meerut, Dehradun, Rampur, Habibganj, Rayanapadu (Vijaywada), Karaikal, Bengaluru, Karamnasa, Mangalore Central, Moradabad, Namburu, Pettaivaytalai and various stations in Mumbai, Chennai etc.
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.
Moreover, few “Shramik Special” trains for transportation of stranded persons from Northeast to states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka by the respective state governments are also planned in the coming days. Indian Railways has already operated more than 1565 “Shramik Special” trains and transported more than 20 lac passengers across the country till today.
