Indian Railways has issued a set of guidelines for its zones for running the Shramik Specials to ferry stranded people, saying the trains should have at least 90 per cent occupancy to operate.
The railways also said the local state government authority shall handover tickets of such trains to passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to the national carrier.
Earlier, in the day, two such special trains reached Odisha and Uttar Pradesh ferrying 1,150 and 800 migrant workers. respectively.
Issuing the guidelines, the railways further said that the originating state will provide adequate security at the designated station to ensure that only those passengers, who have been cleared by the state government to travel and have valid train ticket for journey, should enter station premises.
'Each Shramik Special train shall be a non-stop train bound for a single destination. Normally, the Shramik special trains will be run for distances more than 500kms. These trains will not stop at any in between station before the destination station. The train with full length composition with social distancing (not counting the inside middle berths) can carry approximately 1200 passengers each,' it said.
The state government shall issue food packets and drinking water at the originating points, it said.
'It will be mandatory for all passengers to wear face cover. The state authorities shall advise the passengers to use mask/face covers. The originating state will encourage all passengers to download and use Aarogya Setu App,' it said.
For trains with long journey beyond 12 hours, one meal will be provided by the railways.
On arrival at their destination, the passengers will be received by state government authorities, who would make all arrangements for their screening quarantine, if necessary, and further travel. The receiving state will make adequate security arrangements at the railway station.
'Railways reserves the right to discontinue Shramik special train operations if safety, security and hygiene protocols are flouted at any stage,' the guidelines issued to all zonal general managers said.
1st special train arrives in Odisha from Kerala
The first 'Shramik' train to Odisha carrying around 1,150 migrant workers stranded in Kerala due to the lockdown arrived in Ganjam district on Sunday, officials said.
The train had left Ernakulam railway station on Friday evening and arrived at Jagannathpur railway station in Ganjam district in the morning. It further proceeded to Khurda Road railway station, where it terminated, they said.
Over 500 passengers, including women and children, got down at Jagannathpur while the remaining got down at Khurda Road, the officials said.
The passengers were screened and given certification for the journey before boarding the train in Kerala, they said.
Those who alighted at Jagannathpur railway station were sent to their home districts of Kandhamal, Ganjam, Rayagada, Boudh, Nabarangpur and Koraput, the officials said.
The travellers, who had registered themselves with the state government's portal, hail from 23 of Odisha's 30 districts.
The highest number of those who returned are from Kandhamal district (382), followed by 283 from Kendrapara and 130 from Ganjam.
The public and journalists were not allowed inside railway stations at the time of their arrival to avoid any health risk, an official said.
The state government has made similar arrangements for the return of more migrant workers stranded in Kerala and Gujarat, he said.
These trains will halt at stipulated railway stations, from where the migrants will go to their villages along with respective panchayat officials and will be placed under quarantine for 14 days, the official said.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik thanked his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan for taking good care of the stranded people during the lockdown and cooperating with the Odisha government to ensure their safe return.
Shramik special arrives in UP from Maharashtra
The first special train for Uttar Pradesh carrying more than 800 workers who were stranded in Maharashtra reached Lucknow on Sunday, marking an end to the long wait of the migrants who had been desperate to return home since the nationwide lockdown began over a month ago.
The railways is running Shramik special trains to move migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded in various parts of the country since March 25.
The first train left for Jharkhand from Hyderabad on Friday.
The 02121 Shramik Special from Nashik started its journey Saturday morning and reached Lucknow nearly 24 hours later.
At 5.52am, the train entered platform no. 1 amid heavy presence of railway, police and health officials.
Some passengers, excited to return home after remaining stranded for over a month amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus, waved at the officials and others captured the moment on their cameras.
After the medical check-up was done, the passengers were given food packets and told to board the UPSRTC buses parked outside the station to return to their homes.
The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation deployed 32 buses to cater to the migrants from all districts in the state, Lucknow depot regional manager P.K. Bose said.
'The total number of passengers who have boarded the UPSRTC buses is 841. The major destinations covered are Siddharthanagar, Shravasti, Kannauj and Bahraich,' managing director of UPSRTC Raj Shekhar said in a statement.
On Friday, around 5,000 migrant labourers from UP stranded in Madhya Pradesh returned in 155 buses, while around 1,341 labourers hailing from MP were sent back home from Uttar Pradesh.
Around 4,00,000 workers stranded in Delhi and 12,000 in Haryana have already reached UP.
