More than 70,000 migrants stranded in Gujarat have been sent home on 65 Shramik Special' trains in the last seven days, making it the largest movement of workers from any state on the special services being run during the nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus.
According to official data accessed by PTI, the state also has 12 more such services planned whereby it will transport more than 13,000 more workers.
More than 21,000 migrants from Maharashtra have been able to return home in 21 such trains and around 5,000 more are likely to be transported in four such services which are in the pipeline.
Nineteen trains carrying more than around 19,000 workers have left Rajasthan while 18 trains carrying a similar number have left Telangana in the last seven days.
Officials said that the 24-coach trains carry 54 passengers (72 in normal times) in each coach and have a capacity of 1,200.
The guidelines issued by the railways on the Shramik Special' trains said that the responsibility for food, health scanning, providing tickets to the stranded and collecting the fare will be with the state from which the train is originating. It has, however, taken the burden of providing one meal to passengers whose journey will be of 12 hours or more.
The railways had started the migrant special trains on May 1 after the central government gave its approval for transportation of stranded workers on the railway network during the lockdown.
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Earlier, the announcement of the coronavirus lockdown had resulted in large scale exodus of workers from cities to their home states mostly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
So far, Uttar Pradesh has received 38 trains, Bihar 37 trains, Odisha 13, Jharkhand 10 and West Bengal two trains.
As of May 8, while Bihar has 13 more trains planned, Uttar Pradesh has 12, Odisha has two and Jharkhand has one service in the pipeline.
West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra have no trains planned for arrival of migrants as of May 8, the data shows.
Normally, the national transporter said in the guidelines, the Shramik Special' trains will be run for distances more than 500 km and will not stop at any station before the destination.
Amidst a political slugfest over allegations that the railways was charging migrants for journeys, the railways has said that it was bearing 85 per cent of the cost of operating these trains, leaving 15 per cent for the states.
While the railways is yet to issue any clarification on its operating costs, officials say that each service is costing the national transporter around Rs 80 lakh.
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