COVID-19 lockdown: Special train ferries stranded migrants from Telangana to Jharkhand

RANCHI: A day after Ministry of Home Affairs allowed interstate movement of students, tourists and migrant labourers to return their homes, the first batch of migrants from Telangana will be reaching here to Ranchi by late evening on Friday.

More than 1200 migrants are being ferried on a special train which left Lingampalli Station at around 5 am on Friday morning and is expected to reach the destination around 11 pm. The 24-coach train, which normally seats 72 people in a compartment, is said to be containing only 54 people in each in accordance with social distancing guidelines.

“We have been informed that a special train with 1200 migrants is reaching here at around 11 pm for which we are fully prepared. The State Government will take care of them after they reach here,” said CPRO Neeraj Kumar. Officials informed that after reaching here they will be sent further to their respective districts by buses which are already waiting at Hatia Railway Station taking all care of social distancing.

They will possibly be quarantined after reaching their destinations by their respective district administrations.

Earlier, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren along with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had been requesting the centre to make an arrangement of ferrying migrants by running special trains as bringing back such a huge number of people by buses is not possible for them. According to the data available with the State Government, more than 5 lakh migrants are stranded in different parts of the State in the lockdown.