Southern Railway commenced the operation of Shramik Special trains from 1st of May, 2020 to transport stranded migrant workers back to their home states. On 27th May, 2020, a total of 17 Shramik Special trains were operated by Southern Railway that includes 12 trains from Tamil Nadu, 4 trains from Kerala and one from Karnataka state destination. The terminating States were Odisha (4 trains), Bihar (4 trains), Uttar Pradesh (3 trains), Tripura (2 trains) and Jharkhand (1 train).
Southern Railway transported over 3,10,000 stranded migrant workers in the last 27 days in Shramik Special trains. As on 27th May 2020, a total of 240 Shramik Special trains have been operated from major destinations across Southern Railway to various States Pan-India .
165 Shramik Special trains originated from Tamil Nadu, 57 trains originated from Kerala , 17 trains from Karnataka and one train from Puducherry was run from 1st to 27th of May, 2020.
The top five railway stations from where maximum trains originated are Dr MGR Chennai Central (48), Coimbatore(31), Tiruppur (12), Mangalore Junction (17) and Tiruvallur (14).
Shramik Special trains were terminated in various states across the country. The top five states where maximum trains from Southern Railway terminated are Bihar (70), Uttar Pradesh (49), Jharkhand (39), Odisha (24) and West Bengal (17).
Southern Railway coordinated with State authorities and accomodated the passengers brought and facilitated by the State Governments. Arrangements for food and water bottles were made for the benefit of migrant workers. The guidelines and directives issued by Home Ministry, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that includes social distancing norms, were enforced at railway stations.
