An air-conditioned passenger train rolled out of Howrah station for Delhi on Tuesday evening, 48 days after passenger services were suspended in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Waiting in the queue of passengers were people yearning to go home, after having been stuck in the city for close to two months.

Rajesh Mehta, who works with a private company and lives in Paddapukur, had come to see his colleague Pritesh Pathak off.

Pathak, a resident of Delhi, had come to Calcutta on March 20 to handle the clearing documentation for a consignment of imported maize from Myanmar, which had arrived at the Calcutta port. He failed to return because of the lockdown.

A man going to visit his ailing mother in a village in Uttar Pradesh, management students from northern India who could not go back in time, people who came to visit relatives here and got stuck — almost every passenger had a different lockdown story to share.

“He flashed a wide smile before leaving. It was the best mood I have seen him in for a long time. He was extremely worried about his aged parents in Delhi,” Mehta told Metro about his colleague, a decade younger than him.

Several women with toddlers in their arms were spotted in the queue, manned by Railway Protection Force jawans.

Passengers started arriving at the station from 2pm, three hours before the scheduled departure — 5.05pm.

Each passenger had to undergo a round of thermal screening for their body temperature before boarding the train. There were two entry points — near the old cab road and the old cloak room — at the old complex, down from the six entry points operational before the lockdown.

The passengers, their faces covered in masks, stood in a queue maintaining a distance from each other.

RPF jawans also made frequent announcements on hailers inside the station, urging people to maintain social distancing.

“The 20-coach train was sanitised before the journey. The handle at the footboard and all other touchpoints inside were disinfected,” said Ishaq Khan, the divisional railway manager of Howrah, who made multiple rounds of platform 9, where the train chugged in around 1.50pm.

One of the first to board was Bimal Mishra, in his late 30s. Mishra and his wife, residents of Belgachhia, were headed to his family home in a village in Rae Bareli district, around 100km from Kanpur.

Mishra is going to visit his 68-year-old mother, who lives alone in the ancestral home.

“I don’t know how I’ll reach my village from Kanpur. But my mother is growing restless with each passing day because of this crisis. I have to go,” said Mishra.

The train had two AC first-class coaches, five AC two-tier coaches and 10 AC three-tier coaches. The total passenger capacity was 1,028.

The majority of the passengers carried their food. The railways will only sell packaged dry food as snacks and water bottles.

The train is supposed to reach Delhi around 10am and leave for Howrah in the evening.