Special train with 674 migrants leaves for UP

More to run on May 24, 26 and 28

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Three arrive from USA

Three residents of Himachal were among 16 people who returned from the USA on Friday. They were received at Chandigarh by the state nodal officers and later sent to various quarantine centres in Kangra, Shimla and Solan districts.

Tribune News Service

Solan,May 22

The first special Shramik express carrying 674 migrants from the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area and Solan left for Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh from Kalka this evening.

DC Rana, Special Secretary, Revenue, said that the train would take the migrants to Gorakhpur, Deoria and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. Three more such trains would ply on May 24, 26 and 28 on the request of the state government. The first train left Kalka around 6 pm. Other trains would leave for other destinations such as Bareilly, Mhow and Faizabad in the coming days. Each train can accommodate around 1,200 passengers.

Rana said that the migrants, who had registered themselves, were accommodated in the train and those working in the major industrial pockets in the state were being facilitated initially.

Nodal officials had been appointed, who would ensure that social distancing and sanitisation measures are taken care of and would also provide masks, water, food packets for lunch and dinner separately, said Vivek Chandel, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Solan, who was also present at the Kalka railway station.

Baddi SP Rohit Malpani said that the spot registration of 1,100 migrants was done today and they were brought to Kalka in HRTC buses.