Chennai: Southern Railway said it has so far transported more than 5.49 lakh stranded migrant workers through 404 Shramik special trains since 1 May.
A railway release said on Saturday 14 Shramik Special trains, carrying 20,653 passengers (4,341 from Tamilnadu and 16,312 from Kerala) were operated by Southern Railway, including three trains from Tamilnadu and 11 from Kerala.
Of the three trains from Tamilnadu, one from Coimbatore left for Balasore (Odisha), one from Karur departed for New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal) and one train from Mettupalayam departed for New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal).
Of the 11 trains from Kerala, two from Palakkad left for New Cooch Behar (West Bengal) and New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), two from Kottayam left for Howrah (West Bengal) and Nergundi (Odisha), One from Trivandrum to Malda Town (West Bengal), one from Tirur to Berhampore Court (West Bengal), two from Aluva to Malda Town and Guwahati (Assam), one from Alleppey to New Cooch Behar, one from Tiruvala to Malda Town and one from Kozhikode to New Cooch Behar.
Till date Southern Railway has transported over 5,49,248 lakh stranded persons in Shramik Special trains since the Mission ‘Back Home’ started on 1 May.
As on 6 June, a total of 404 Shramik Specials were operated from major stations across Southern Railway to various States. Of this 238 originated from Tamilnadu, 143 from Kerala, 20 from Karnataka and three trains from Puducherry.
The railway stations from where maximum trains were operated included Dr MGR Chennai Central (63) and Chennai Egmore (13) Coimbatore (36), Tiruppur (29), Mangalore Junction (20) and Tiruvallur (17).
Shramik Special trains run had terminated in various states across the country. The top five states where maximum trains from Southern Railway terminated are Bihar (112), West Bengal (80), Uttar Pradesh (65), Jharkhand (48), Odisha (47) and Assam (13).
A dedicated team of frontline staff including RPF, Ticket Checking Staff and Supervisors were deployed at railway stations to assist passengers in thermal screening, social distancing and for distributing food and water bottles to passengers.
Special care was taken to ensure a comfortable and safe journey for passengers of Shramik trains.