Railways to run 'Shramik Special Trains' to move stranded migrant workers and students

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday allowed Indian railways to operate special passenger trains to ferry stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students, and other persons back to their homes.

New Delhi: Indian Railways, on Friday, decided to run 'Shramik Special Trains' in order to move migrant workers, pilgrims, students, tourists and other persons who are stranded in various states amid the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, Ministry of Home Affairs issued fresh guidelines allowing the movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other person stranded at different places due to lockdown by Special Trains which will be operated by Ministry of Railways.

"These special trains will be run from point to point on the request of both the concerned state governments as per the standard protocols for sending and receiving the migrants. Railways and State Governments shall appoint senior officials as nodal officers for coordination and smooth operation of these Shramik specials," said Railway Ministry in a statement.

Railways also issued a list of special trains which are planned to run on Friday including trains from Lingampally to Hatia, Alava to Bhuvaneshvar, Nasik to Lucknow, Nasik to Bhopal, Jaipur to Patna and Kota to Hatia.

However, the number of passengers and the timings of these special trains will be finalized by the State Governments, a railway ministry official informed.

"The passengers have to be screened by sending states and only those found asymptomatic would be allowed to travel. Sending State Governments will have to bring these persons in batches that can be accommodated in the train to the designated railway station in sanitized buses following social distancing norms and other precautions," said the statement of Railway Ministry.

Meals and drinking water will be provided to the passengers by sending States at the originating station. However, on longer routes, Railways will provide a meal en route during the journey.

The announcement came after the railway ministry ran a special train to ferry 1200 stranded migrant labourers from Telangana to Jharkhand, earlier today.