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).
As of 22.05.2020, 170 (one hundred seventy) such Shramik Special Trains reached NFR areas with about 2,25,000 stranded people. Passengers were given free meals, water, and necessary medical help by railways as and when required during the journey.
Passengers of Shramik Special Trains are mainly students and migrant labours with their family members. Out of 170 trains, 22 (twenty-two) trains arrived in various N.E. states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Assam till yesterday with about 30,000 stranded people of all NE states including Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland. Another 23-24 trains will be arriving in the coming days in these states with stranded people. While 145(one hundred forty-five) trains arrived in Bihar areas under NFR till yesterday and 3(three) trains arrived in North Bengal under NFR.
In NFR areas under Katihar division of Bihar trains arrived at stations like Katihar, Purnea, Arraria, Kishanganj. Another 45(forty-five) trains will be arriving in these areas of Bihar and 1(one) at New Jalpaiguri by tomorrow 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.
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 also left from Northeast with stranded personsto states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka. More such trains will run in the coming days.
Indian Railways has already operated more than 2600 “Shramik Special” trains and transported more than 36 lac passengers across the country till yesterday. In a major decision, the Ministry of Railways has decided to operate 2600 more Shramik Special Trains in the next ten days across the country as per the needs of State Governments. This initiative is expected to benefit 36 lakh stranded passengers across the country.
