Goa: As thousands leave, shelter home to be empty by Saturday

Margao: Two Shramik Special trains carrying over 3,000 migrant workers left from Margao railway station for Basti in UP on Wednesday. With several thousand migrants having left for their native places over the last few days, the Manohar Parrikar indoor stadium at Navelim that was bursting at the seams is now left with just a few hundred migrants.

The district administration is now mulling closing down the shelter home by Saturday as it expects the rest of the inmates to vacate the premises by then. “Less than 300 people are currently staying at the shelter home. They are mostly from Bihar and MP. We expect them to leave by trains that will depart from Margao in the next two days. By Saturday, all are likely to have vacated the shelter home,” incident commander Margao of covid task force Ajit Panchwadkar told TOI.

With the number of inmates having reduced drastically, the pressure on the authorities in supplying them meals has been eased.

The Navelim shelter was initially intended to accommodate around 250-300 migrants who had registered to go to their native places. Since the Shramik Special trains commenced, thousands had to be accommodated in it.

Meanwhile, altogether 33 people alighted from two transit Rajdhani trains at Margao railway station on Wednesday. Of the 10 passengers who got down from the New Delhi-Nizamuddin train, three opted for covid tests, while 11 of the 23 passengers who alighted from the Nizamuddin-Ernakulam train underwent the tests. The rest were sent for home quarantine.