50000 labourers heading back to Mumbai daily

Around 50,000 labourers are heading back to Mumbai on a daily basis, posing new challenges to authorities in containing the spread of infection.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Labourers from Mumbai who had left for their native states following the strict restrictions imposed in Maharashtra to curb the pandemic, are now returning back to the city. About 50,000 labourers are now making a comeback to the city, posing new challenges to authorities in controlling the Covid surge.

It is known that the state government had imposed weekend lockdown and strict restrictions to deal with the deadly second wave of the pandemic. This compelled the labourers staying in Mumbai to return to their native states after the festival of Holi due to fear of loss of work and earnings. A huge number of workers from West Bengal too had exited Mumbai due to elections in their native state.

With Corona cases on the rise in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, the mass return of migrant labourers from these states poses a grave danger as most of these workers are entering Mumbai without Covid tests.

According to Central and Western railways, though interstate trains have been cancelled due to poor response, those coming from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have witnessed an increase.

Along with regular trains, some special trains have also been started. Thus a total of 55 trains are arriving in Mumbai daily from these states with an occupancy of about 60%-75% for each train.

About 32,000 workers are taking the Central Railway while 18,000 have been travelling to Mumbai on the Western Railway on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, amidst the huge influx, the doubling rate of Covid cases has soared to 123 days. However, due to the strict restrictions imposed the situation is still under control.

The state government has also clearly instructed that the labourers coming to Mumbai via road or railway from other states, get registered and tested.