Railways operates 1,500 Shramik trains, ferries over 17 lakh migrants since May 1

New Delhi, May 19: Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday announced that the Indian railways have run 1,565 Shramik Special trains since May 1 and it has ferried over more than 20 lakh standard migrants from various parts of the country.

 

 

While Uttar Pradesh has allowed 837 trains, Bihar has permitted 428 and Madhya Pradesh more than 100, Railway Minister said in a tweet. As of Monday night, 162 trains were in transit and 1,252 had reached their destinations. Around 116 more are currently in the pipeline, it said.

 

 

 

Railway Ministry spokesperson said that more than two lakh people were being transported per day for the last few days, which is expected to be scaled up to three lakh passengers per day in the coming days. The official said that these 1,565 Shramik Special trains have originated from various states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar.

 

All special trains have 24 coaches each with a capacity of 72 seats. A Shramik Special train carries around 1,700 passengers, instead of the earlier 1,200, to ferry as many workers home as possible. Initially, these trains had no scheduled stoppages during the journey, but the Railways now allows up to three stoppages in the destination states.

 

The Railways had suspended all passenger, mail and express trains to combat the spread of Covid-19 from March 25. Only freight and special parcel trains were being run to transport essential items. Since May 12, the Railways also started to run 15 pairs of Special Rajdhani Express trains and has earned over Rs 76 crore till Monday from the 2.05 lakh tickets sold for 3.8 lakh passengers.