For the last three days, Khairul Munshi has been camping out at the mustering centre at Tripura Vasini waiting for a train to take him back to his family in Howrah. Finally, on Saturday evening, South Western Railway (SWR) restarted Shramik Special train services after a nearly three-week-long gap, and operated one train for people from the northeast, and from States such as Odisha and West Bengal.

The Guwahati-bound train pulled out of Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna City Railway Station with 1,540 passengers at 6.40 p.m. It will stop at Nirgundi (Odisha), Howrah, and New Jalpaiguri.

Prior to Saturday’s train, the SWR operated the last Shramik special on July 6 from Bengaluru to Dimapur with 1,600 passengers. E. Vijaya, chief public relations officer, SWR, said the service was resumed as per the requirement of the State government. “We received intimation on Friday. The train will cover multiple States for the benefit of the passengers,” she said.

Having lost his job, Mr. Munshi is relieved that he is finally getting to go back home. “I was working as a construction worker near Hoskote, but I lost the job after lockdown was imposed. I have spent months without any revenue. I hoped the situation would improve, but that didn’t happen,” he said. After the second lockdown ended on July 22, he decided to return home. “There is a lot of uncertainty and suffering here. In the past, I used to visit my family members in Howrah with some money in my pocket, but this time I am going back empty-handed,” he added.

At the mustering centre, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike provided food and accommodation to migrants. Families, including children, were seen gathering at the centre waiting to board the train. In the past, the police were deployed in large numbers to oversee the process, but on Saturday, it was BBMP and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation officials who ensured that the over 1,500 passengers boarded the train safely.

264 trains run so far

As per the requirement of the State government, the SWR started running trains for migrant workers from May 3. To date, the Railways has operated 264 Shramik Specials from various points across Karnataka, but the majority from Bengaluru Division.

More than 3.85 lakh people have travelled back to their home town since the outbreak of the pandemic. The maximum number of trains were run on May 20 — 14 trains carrying over 21,000 people left to various destinations. Demand for Shramik trains started reducing after June 20.

Incidentally, services have resumed at a time when migrant workers who had left a few months ago are turning to Bengaluru in other special train services from various States. There are reports of builders booking flights to bring back construction workers to complete the pending projects in Bengaluru and other parts of the State such as Mangaluru.