82,000 stranded people have so far reached Bihar: ECR

PATNA: Around 82,000 migrant workers, students and others stranded at different places in the country during the lockdown have so far reached Bihar by special trains run by railways in coordination with state governments.

ECR chief public relations officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar said railways would run at least 121 ‘Shramik special’ trains for Bihar to ferry migrant workers, students and other stranded people during the lockdown.

Of them, 70 special trains have reached Bihar till Saturday.

“Fifty-one more special trains will be run by the railways to bring back stranded people to Bihar,” the CPRO said, adding more than 13,000 students from Kota in Rajasthan have so far reached Bihar.

About 14,000 stranded migrant workers, students and others reached different districts in Bihar from Delhi and six other states by 12 special trains on Saturday.

The CPRO said the special train from New Delhi carrying about 1,100 stranded migrant workers reached Muzaffarpur early on Saturday morning.

“Two other special trains from Surat in Gujarat reached Chhapra and Gaya stations, respectively, carrying about 2,300 migrant workers and other stranded people. Besides, a special train from Rohtak in Haryana reached Katihar with 1,050 migrant workers on Saturday,” he said.

Another special train carrying mostly migrant workers reached Muzaffarpur from Jalandhar cantonment on Saturday, while a special train from Ambala reached Bhagalpur with about 1,100 migrant workers.

The special train from Vadodara in Gujarat carrying migrant workers reached Darbhanga. Similarly, a special train from Kalyan in Maharashtra reached Araria with migrant workers while another special train from Alappuzha in Kerala reached Bettiah, carrying migrant workers and other stranded people.

Two other special trains from Ludhiana in Punjab reached Saharsa and Sitamarhi stations, while another special train from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh reached Purnia around 2pm on Saturday.

“Railways provided water bottles and snacks to the passengers during journey in some of the long distance trains,” the CPRO said.

The railway security and safety personnel take at least two hours to clear each Shramik special train on its arrival at station and then sanitise each coach. “Wearing mask is mandatory for all passengers,” he said.

The platform number one at Sitamarhi railway station was adorned with flowers and balloons to welcome the migrants. Food packets and water bottles were also provided to them. DM Abhilasha Kumari Sharma, SP Anil Kumar, DPRO Parimal Kumar and other senior officials were present at the station. Each passenger had to undergo thermal screening at the platform. The migrant workers from Sitamarhi, Sheohar, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj and other districts were sent by buses to several block and panchayat level quarantine centres.

In Saran, a special train carrying 1,206 migrants from Surat arrived at Chhapra junction. Saran DM Subrat Kumar Sen, SP Har Kishore Rai and many other senior officials were present at the railway station when the train arrived.

(With inputs from Shyam Kishore Singh in Sitamarhi and H K Verma in Chhapra)