Over 2 lakh guest workers ferried home, says railways zone

: As many as 2.40 lakh migrant

workers were transported to their home states across the country as on Sunday by the South Central Railway (SCR) zone.

The workers were ferried by 196 Shramik Special trains, said a SCR press release.

While the zone transported the first one lakh passengers in 16 days, the next one lakh passengers were transported in just seven, the release said.

South Central Railway is the first zone on Indian Railways to run the first special train on May 1. The train carried 1,200 guest workers from Lingampalli in Telangana to Hatia in Jharkhand since the railway service was suspended due to the coronavirus lockdown, it said.

 

As part of the operations, a record number of 43 Shramik Special trains were run within a span of 12 hours (between 4 pm on Saturday and the early hours of Sunday) from various railway stations in SCR jurisdiction towards destinations in various states of central and north India, it said.

Movement of the trains was continuously monitored, giving precedence to all aspects of safety and security throughout the journey, it said addingSCR general manager Gajanan Mallyahas been personally monitoring the entire operations in close coordination with senior officials of various divisions.

Norms associated with social distancing and wearing of masks were followed by the railway personnel,the release added.