Starting with the first Shramik Special Train being rolled out from the Zone on 3rd May 2020, South Western Railway has run 200 Shramik special trains transporting 2.90 lakh migrant workers to their native destinations. While, the Zone transported first one lakh passengers in 13 days, the next one lakh passengers were transported in just 6 days.
SWR is going all out to arrange for trains as per the demand of the state Govt. to all parts of country so that migrant workers can reach their hometowns.
Five more Shramik specials are scheduled to leave today from Bengaluru area, two to Bihar and one each to Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Guwahati (Assam). With this the total number of passengers carried is likely to touch 3.0 lakh passengers.
SWR has run Shramik Specials from KSR Bengaluru, Bengaluru Cant., Chikbanawar, Malur, Mysuru – Ashokapuram, Kabakaputtur, Hassan, Hubballi, Hosapete, Bellari, Koppal, and Hosur in Tamil Nadu as below;
Sl State No. of Trains No. of Passengers
1 Bihar 66 97,653
2 Uttar Pradesh 48 69,087
3 Jharkhand 21 30,962
4 Odisha 12 18,791
5 West Bengal 19 27,894
6 Rajasthan 7 9,309
7 Madhya Pradesh 5 7,085
8 Tripura 4 5,704
9 Uttarakhand 3 3,863
10 Jammu & Kashmir 3 2,950
11 Assam 5 7,669
12 Manipur 2 3,090
13 Himachal Pradesh 1 643
14 Chhattisgarh 1 1,205
15 Kerala 1 1,496
16 Mizoram 1 1,456
17 Nagaland 1 1,507
Total 200 2,90,364
Bengaluru Division has run 169 Shramik Specials ferrying 2,45,189 passengers. Hubbali Division has run 20 Shramik Special carrying 29,729 passengers and Mysuru Division has run 11 Shramik Specials carrying 15,446 passengers.
SWR is transporting passengers to their destination as per the demand of State Government with proper protocol and the receiving State Government is ready to accept them. These special trains are being run from point to point with no stoppages en-route. State Government is arranging to bring passengers of Shramik Special trains to the stations through BMTC Buses as per the protocol.
Care is being taken to ensure social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitizing of hands and making regular announcement to caution the passengers for prevention and spread of Covid-19 virus before departure from stations. Hand Sanitizer along with liquid soap has been provided in all coaches to protect against spread of Covid-19 Virus. Railway is also ensuring complete sanitization of all coaches before boarding of special train by the passengers.
Special Trains are departing the Stations only after all the passengers are medically examined by Government of Karnataka and issued medical certificate. Thermal screening is again done by Railway Medical Teams at the stations. None of the passengers was detected with high temperature. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) team is escorting the trains and ensuring social distancing. Details of passengers, coach-wise with address and mobile Nos. have been obtained. Details have been digitalized and stored for contact tracing in future, if required.
