South Western Railways runs six special trains, ferries 7,353 migrants on Sunday

South Western Railways has announced that it operated six special trains on Sunday, carrying 7,353 passengers in their home town across the country. The first train left from Bengaluru and was heading towards Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.

READ: Indian Railways To Gradually Restart Operations With 15 Passenger Trains From May 12

Special trains to carry laborers

The second train departed from Malur to Bankura in West Bengal with 1,200 passengers and 47 children. These passengers were mostly migrant workers with their families and children returning to their hometowns. While the third Shramik special carrying 1,608 passengers left from Chikkabanavara, Bengaluru to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

READ: Delhi-Jammu Passenger Train To Start On May 13 Instead Of May 12: MoS PMO Jitendra Singh

The railways, on Sunday announced that it will be gradually resuming operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. 

READ: Now, Around 1,700 Passengers & 3 Stoppages For 'Shramik Special' Trains For Migrants

In a statement, the Ministry of Railways said the state-run transporter shall start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and an adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as “Shramik Special” for stranded migrants.

In line with the government's hygiene norms, it will be mandatory for passengers to wear face cover. They will also have to undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. Further details including train schedule will be issued separately in due course, the Ministry said.

While speaking to Republic TV, MoS PMO Jitendra Singh announced that while Indian Railways was ready to passenger train operations from May 12, the first train from Delhi to Jammu will begin on May 13. 

READ: 'It Is Prohibited': Western Railway Appeals To Migrant Workers To Stay Off Railway Tracks