Nine more trains to carry migrants from Punjab to other states on Saturday

CHANDIGARH: Nine more special shramik trains will leave from railway stations in Punjab on Saturday, taking migrants back to their native states.


Since May 5, 4.84 lakh migrant workers have moved out of the state in 375 such trains.

State nodal officer Vikas Pratap, principal secretary of PWD, said sufficient trains would be kept running on need-based assessment.

Punjab government would continue to run these trains till needed, he added. “The assessment has been carried out to review efforts till now and to have a fair idea about trains needed in the coming days,” said Pratap.

Of the trains which have left Punjab, as many as 226 have gone to Uttar Pradesh, 123 to Bihar, nine to Jharkhand, seven to Madhya Pradesh, three to Chhatisgarh and two to West Bengal. One train each has gone to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. The nodal officer said lakhs of migrants had also willingly decided to stay back in Punjab during lockdown.

Also, 23,000 migrants have left in buses to neighbouring states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

Punjab government has already spent Rs 26 crore on train operations being run by deputy commissioners in collaboration with railway authorities of Ferozepur and Ambala divisions. In all, 188 trains have left from Ludhiana, followed by 76 from Jalandhar, 29 from Amritsar, 24 from Patiala, 23 from Mohali, 15 from Ferozepur, seven from Doraha, six from Sirhind, three from Bathinda, two from Gurdaspur, and one each from Hoshiarpur and Pathankot railway stations.