A bench at a bus stop in Alipore had seven occupants on Sunday afternoon, seeking cover from the blazing sun and waiting for any vehicle headed further south.

The group has been walking since 3am on Sunday, starting from Darjeeling More in Panagarh, around 160km away. A bus full of migrant labourers that left Odisha on Friday afternoon dropped these men at Panagarh before heading to Murshidabad, where most occupants live. The bus had left Rourkela and entered Bengal via Jharkhand because some occupants had to get off at Purulia and West Midnapore.

The seven are from a village called Katramanoharpur, around 5km from Kulpi in South 24-Parganas.

“We kept walking and got occasional lifts on mini trucks. The weather is cruel and we cannot move on without a brief stop. A (traffic) policeman said we could get a bus or a private vehicle till Thakurpukur or Amtala from here,” Jahangir Sheikh, 50, the eldest member of the group, said.

The men were deployed at a mobile tower installation site at a village in Odisha’s Rourkela district. They had been living in tents at the construction site. Work stopped on March 22.

“The contractor who had hired us gave around Rs 20,000. We were a group of 12. The money included wages for the days of work in March and for our survival during the lockdown, which was then estimated to be a short affair,” Moksidul Mir, 24, who was among the seven waiting at the bus stop along Judges Court Road, said.

Over a week into the shutdown, the men were taken to a government shelter, where they stayed till May 15. “We kept pleading with officials to help us return home. We learnt about trains for labourers but an official said a place on the trains would not be possible because of too many applications,” Sheikh said.

Raju Sheikh, another member of the group, said everyone was desperate to return home because “we sensed the lockdown was going to be a lengthy affair”. “Staying at home without work is better than staying in another state without work. At home, we can sell fish or vegetables and at least try to earn enough for two meals a day,” he said.

A bus was arranged for 50 labourers who hail from Bengal. “We (the 50, all men) had to pay Rs 60,000 to the bus operator for the journey,” he said.

The bus left Rourkela on Friday afternoon and reached Panagarh around 3am on Sunday. The group from South 24-Parganas then started walking towards Calcutta. “We got a couple of lifts on mini trucks but most of the distance was covered on foot. The sun was scorching but the urge to see our families kept us going,” Raju, who has four children, said.

The group survived on puffed rice and biscuits given by cops at the Bengal-Odisha border. They did not get any bus from Alipore and walked till Taratala. After waiting for close to an hour under the Taratala flyover, a mini truck carrying cereals dropped them at Kulpi for Rs 150.

But instead of going home, the group went straight to Kulpi Rural Hospital where they underwent swab tests.

“I reached home around 7pm. A doctor at the hospital said I should stay in a separate room for 14 days and not step out,” Raju said.