Eight Shramik trains from NCR to Bihar will take 32,000 home, starting tomorrow

NOIDA: Thousands of migrant workers waiting for weeks to go home, and fresh waves of those who are walking from faraway Punjab and Haryana towns, will leave Noida and Ghaziabad in special trains that will start from Saturday.
A total of eight trains will ferry batches of workers to various destinations in Bihar. Three trains will depart from Ghaziabad and five from Dadri and Dankaur, carrying 32,000 passengers in total.

Officials said the timings of the trains were yet to be decided and the migrants who have registered with the government portal to return home would be informed through text messages. After the Bihar trains depart, those from eastern Uttar Pradesh will be sent in buses in the next phase.
Officials said a total of 80,000 workers from various parts of the country had registered on the government portal to return home from Noida. Around 10% of them want to return to Bihar. Ghaziabad has a list of 24,000 workers who will be sent back to Bihar.
The three trains that will depart from Ghaziabad will terminate at Patna, Muzaffarnagar and Raxaul. The five other trains from Dadri and Dankaur will head for Samastipur, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Motihari and Araria. Sources said the Ghazia-bad administration was planning to run such trains, along with the railways, for several days.
Officials in North Central Railway were initially reluctant to operate trains out of Dadri railway station due to its limitations in handling so much traffic. Barring Licchavi Express, only short distance MEMU trains stop at Dadri. The staff is skeletal here and inadequate to handle major commercial operations, which is why officials were initially apprehensive if Dadri would able to handle so many passengers at once.
However, the railways agreed on the proposal after the Noida administration assured them of end-to-end cooperation during a meeting held on Wednesday evening. Railway officials have also been called in from Firozabad, Mathura and Agra to manage the mass movement. Each 24-coach Shramik Special will have a capacity to move about 1,700 people.
To allay fears of overcrowding and a stampede-like situation at Dadri, it was proposed on Wednesday that 40% of the passengers would board trains from Dankaur station. Located 18 km from Dadri, Dankaur station, too, does not see much traffic.
Noida district magistrate Suhas LY said only those registered on the portal would be allowed to board the trains after screening.
“We are planning logistics to move migrant workers back to their destinations. We have already identified the workers who are staying in the district and teams concerned are getting in touch with them,” said Suhas, who inspected the Dadri railway station on Thursday.
Ghaziabad DM Ajay Shankar Pandey said, “Though train timings are still being worked out, we will send out messages on their phones. They would be required to reach Ghaziabad station, where they will be screened. They also need to wear masks.”
Since the state government is bearing the entire cost, the passengers on these Shramik trains would not need to buy tickets. However, each passenger will need to be at the stations at least three hours from the departure of trains.
Health department officials in the two districts held a meeting on Thursday evening to constitute a team that would conduct thermal screening at the three stations.
Narendra Bhooshan, the nodal officer for helping migrant workers stranded in Delhi, said, “We are still in the process of deciding the final routes and destinations. We are coordinating with Delhi, police and railway police to make all arrangements. Most of these trains will leave for eastern UP and Bihar.”
Railway officials were looking at bringing coaches to the two districts from Kasganj, Agra and Aligarh. Shramik Specials from other states reached the three districts on Wednesday and Thursday and could be put to use in Noida and Ghaziabad.