32.5 lakh including migrant workers travelled to big cities in 7 days: Railways
Premium- The spike in movement of migrant workers is a result of relaxation in Covid curbs in many cities, including Delhi and Mumbai
The Indian Railways on Saturday informed that during the past seven days, over 32.5 lakh passengers including migrant workers travelled to big cities. They traveled from areas like Eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Odisha to cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Chennai.
The spike in movement of migrant workers is a result of relaxation in Covid curbs in many cities, including Delhi and Mumbai. The national capital has allowed various activities including construction and manufacturing units.
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To facilitate the movement of migrant labour from the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha to the metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, the Indian Railways is operating mail/express specials, holiday specials and summer special trains, the Ministry of Railways said in a statement released on Saturday.
As on 18th June, 983 mail/express and holiday specials (56 per cent of the pre-Covid level) are being operated by Railways. In addition, about 1309 Summer Specials have also been operated to facilitate the movement of the people wanting to return to the place of work.
These Summer Specials provide connectivity primarily from states like Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam to major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Bengaluru, the Railways said.
For the next 10 days (from June 19 to 28) approximately 29.15 lakh passengers including migrant workers and other passengers have booked their tickets by long distance mail express trains from areas like Eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Odisha to various destinations including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Chennai areas.
The ministry said that the Zonal Railways were actively coordinating with various industry associations and business houses to ascertain the demand and facilitate the movement of the workers accordingly.
The summer special trains are operating between different origin destination pairs like Gorakhpur-Mumbai, Bhagalpur-Mumbai, Bhubaneswar-Pune, Danapur-Pune, Barauni-Ahmedabad, Patna-Delhi, Samastipur-Mumbai, Sealdah-Delhi, Raxaul-Delhi, Saharsa-Delhi, Danapur-Secunderabad, Raxaul-Secunderabad, Patliputra-Bengaluru, Chapra-Mumbai, Guwahati-Bengaluru, Gorakhpur-Hyderabad, etc, the ministry said.
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