23k passengers reach state

PATNA: Nearly 23,000 migrant workers and other people, who were stranded in Goa and four other states amid the Covid-19 lockdown, returned to Bihar by 15 Shramik special trains on Tuesday.

Altogether 1,512 trains have brought back 20 lakh people to different places under the jurisdiction of the East Central Railway (ECR) since May 2.

ECR’s chief public relations officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar told this newspaper that special trains from Tirur, Kanhangad, Calicut, Thrissur, Trivandrum and Alappuzha in Kerala reached Nawada, Katihar, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Bettiah and Barauni with 11,000 passengers on Tuesday.

“Two trains from Tiruppur and one from Chennai in Tamil Nadu came back to Muzaffarpur, Hajipur and Madhubani. Similarly, 3,000 passengers reached Katihar and Darbhanga from Mumbai and Nashik in Maharashtra while 3,200 people returned to Araria and Banka from Madgaon in Goa. Another train from Kalka in Haryana reached Barauni,” the CPRO said.

Average occupancy of trains high: ECR’s CPRO Rajesh Kumar has claimed that the average occupancy of the special trains, which began running on routes like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ranchi from June 1, is almost 95%.

According to Danapur divisional railway manager (DRM) Sunil Kumar, a special catering cell has been set up at the control room to keep tabs on the distribution of meals, snacks and water bottles among the passengers travelling by Shramik special trains.

“Altogether 5.27 lakh food packets and 10 lakh water bottles have been distributed among the migrant workers either reaching or passing through the Danapur station during the last fortnight,” the DRM said and added that a hand wash-cum-sanitizer machine had been installed at the Patna Junction on Monday.