In places like Bihar, sourcing packed food to distribute in trains has become an issue with supply chains stressed due to the lockdown.

Indian Railways ties up with corporate majors like Coca Cola, ITC & HUL! With migrant workers arriving in their home states on Indian Railways’ Shramik Special trains, many corporate giants are providing them with refreshments as well helping meet other requirements. In places like Bihar, sourcing packed food to distribute in trains has become an issue with supply chains stressed due to the lockdown. Thus, officials are establishing a direct connection with corporate majors, and many business firms are helping, under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. For instance, on Monday, one lakh Coca-Cola bottles and juices were sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company for passengers on Shramik Special trains arriving in or passing through the state of Bihar, according to an IE report.

At Patna’s Danapur Division, soft drink bottles worth Rs 80 lakh were distributed by the Coca Cola company. Also, ITC contributed water bottles along with packaged snacks, biscuits, and such items worth Rs 25 lakh, to make “ration kits” for each migrant passenger, especially on Shramik Special trains going to Northeast. To install COVID-19 safe foot-operated sanitization kiosks at multiple places, Hindustan Unilever was roped in, while online courses were held by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for station staff on safe food handling vis-à-vis COVID-19. Also, 25 industrial-level sprayers were provided by Crompton Greaves for sanitization, utilized on all the big stations in the division, the report said.

According to a senior official of the Danapur division, the Shramik Special trains going to Assam, North Bengal, as well as other Northeast states are coming from places as far-off as Maharashtra and Goa. Even after crossing Danapur, they still have a good 12-hour journey left so a meal service and ration kit is important to each passenger. For manpower, the national transporter has signed up volunteers who helped in distributing the food and water to passengers. Also, Indian Railways had to ensure passengers of these trains had eatables to consume twice, the official added.

According to the report, 500 functionaries of Indian Railways had signed up to be volunteers. Also, after several passengers kept tagging the division’s social media handle with requests, the officials of Indian Railways started publicizing a WhatsApp number on which passengers of incoming Shramik Special trains could update their current locations live. This was done to give a realistic idea to the officials about when to expect the train. Across the country, the national transporter had distributed at least 1.19 crore meals as well as over 1.5 crore water bottles.