COVID-19 Lockdown: 200 Shramik Special Trains Carry 2.5 Lakh Migrants Back Home

New Delhi: Indian Railways said that it has run about 200 Shramik Special trains since May 1 and carried back home nearly 2.5 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Forty such trains departed yesterday, including the first train to originate from New Delhi carrying 1,200 migrant workers to Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh, the Railways said while adding that it ran 56 Shramik Special Trains on Wednesday.

Every special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. But the national transporter is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger.

Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations, followed by Kerala since the beginning of the services.

Among the receiving states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remained the top states.