In a major relief to migrant labourers across the country, the Indian Railways started operating “Shramik Special” trains from Friday to move migrant workers stuck in various states. On Friday, it operated six trains from Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala and Rajasthan for transportation of over 7,000 people -- including stranded labourers, pilgrims, tourists and students -- to their home states.
Multiple trains carrying migrant labourers are expected to start on Saturday from several states for which a MHA will give afinal nod on a case-to-case basis. The Kerala government said at least five trains from there were likely to leave for Assam and West Bengal on Saturday.
Two days after the MHA formally allowed movement of stranded persons by bus, it issued the notification on Friday for "movement of migrant workers, tourists, pilgrims, students and other persons, stranded at different places" by special trains.
The railways clarified that these are special trains planned for nominated people identified and registered by the state governments. “We will not issue any ticket to an individual or entertain any request from any group or individual. We will allow only those passengers to board whom the state government officials will bring to railway stations,” a railway official said.
Passengers will have to pay the fare of sleeper mail express trains and Rs 30 super fast charge and additional charge of Rs 20 each.
“Travellers will have to pay the basic fare for their journey. On a single train, not more than 1,200 people are allowed,” said a Kerala state government official.
Apart from Lingampalli to Hatia, trains from Aluva in Kerala to Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Nasik in Maharashtra to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Nasik to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur in Rajasthan to Patna in Bihar and Kota in Rajasthan to Hatia operated on Friday. “The decision on further trains will be taken as per the direction of the MHA and talks with the originating and destination states,” P S Mishra, member (traffic) of the Railway Board, told Business Standard.
The Indian Railways said in a statement that special trains would run from point-to-point on the request of both the originating and destination state. They would follow the standard protocols for sending and receiving such stranded persons. The Railways and the states will appoint senior officials as nodal persons for coordination and smooth operation of these “Shramik Specials”.
The trains were started after taking all the necessary precautions such prior screening of passengers, maintaining social distancing at station and in the train too.
“The passengers have to be screened by the 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 a railway statement.
The destination state would have to make all arrangements for their screening, quarantine, if necessary, and further travel from the railway station.
On trains, masks would be mandatory for each passenger while meals and drinking water would be provided to the passengers by the sending states at the originating station.
The statement added that on longer routes, the Railways would provide a meal en-route during the journey. According to the media reports, the Indian Railways has lined up a proposal for movement of stranded migrant laborers across the country by operating 400 trains daily initially and then scaling it up to 1,000. The decision to run migrant trains were taken more than a month after passenger train operations were stopped on March 25.