Special trains to ferry stranded migrants

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 1

The government today decided to allow the Railways to run special trains for the movement of stranded migrant labourers, students, pilgrims and others stuck at various places in different parts of the country due to the nationwide lockdown.

In an official statement, the Railways announced it would run six “Shramik Special” trains from “Labour Day” itself. PM Narendra Modi held high-level consultations with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to decide on running special trains and work out a plan for their operations.

“It was decided in favour of running trains and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was directed to issue guidelines for the same,” a senior government official said.

The MHA said, “The movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons, stranded at different places, is allowed by special trains to be operated by Ministry of Railways (MoR).”

The MHA has asked the MoR to designate “nodal officer(s)” for coordinating with states/UTs for migrants’ movement. It said, “The MoR will issue detailed guidelines for the sale of tickets; social distancing and other safety measures to be observed at railway stations, train platforms and within trains.” The six trains are Lingampally (Hyderabad) to Hatia (Ranchi), Nasik to Lucknow, Aluva to Bhubaneswar, Nasik to Bhopal, Jaipur to Patna and Kota to Hatia.

First train chugs off

• Six “Shramik Special” trains will carry stranded migrant labours, students, pilgrims and others stuck at various places across the country
• The first such train chugged off from Lingampalli railway station (Telangana) to Hatia (Jharkhand) carrying over 1,200 migrants at 4.50 am on Friday