The Indian Railways, which has so far run about 468 Shramik Special trains, has now decided to run such trains with three stops in the destination State. Currently, these trains are run from one point to another without any stoppages.

Additionally, these trains will now have an increased carrying capacity of 1,700 passengers in each train, as opposed to 1,200 passengers at present, a Railways spokesperson confirmed.

In a separate statement, the Railways said it had operated 468 Shramik Special trains till 10.00 a.m. on May 11. “As on 11th May 2020, a total of 468 ‘Shramik Special’ trains have been operationalised from various States across the country, in which 363 trains had reached their destination and 105 trains were in transit,” the statement said.

It added that of the 363 trains, one train terminated in Andhra Pradesh, 100 in Bihar, one in Himachal Pradesh, 22 in Jharkhand, 30 in Madhya Pradesh, three in Maharashtra, 25 in Odisha, four in Rajasthan, two in Telangana, 172 in Uttar Pradesh, two in West Bengal and one in Tamil Nadu.

“These trains have ferried migrants to cities like Tiruchirappalli, Titlagarh, Barauni, Khandwa, Jagannathpur, Khurda Road, Prayagraj, Chhapra, Balia, Gaya, Purnia, Varanasi, Darbhanga, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Jaunpur, Hatia, Basti, Katihar, Danapur, Muzzaffarpur, Saharsa etc,” it said.

In these trains, a maximum of around 1,200 passengers can travel, observing social distancing. However, there is no clarity as of now on social distancing measures to be followed with the capacity being increased to 1,700 passengers per train.