May 14, 2020
105 more trains to ferry stranded migrants back home
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday, through a tweet from her official handle, that the State Government has arranged another 105 special trains to bring back stranded migrant labourers, tourists and students from different parts of the country back to Bangla.
The trains are expected to carry more than 1.5 lakh people from nearly 25 cities spread across 12 major states in the next one month. The list of trains has also been put out by the government.
The first of the 105 trains will start from New Delhi on Saturday and reach Howrah on Sunday morning. The highest number of trains are scheduled to come from Kerala where more than 1.5 lakh migrant labourers are stuck. There will be 28 trains coming from 11 locations of the state.
The second-highest number of trains will be coming from Maharashtra. A senior official informed that there will be 18 trains from six locations – Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Raigad, Amravati and Pune.
Ten trains will originate from three locations of Tamil Nadu, seven trains from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, five each from Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka, three from Andhra Pradesh, two from Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
These trains will bring the people to seven locations of the State. The highest number of trains (42) will travel to the New Cooch Behar Station. The Howrah and Malda Town stations will see the arrival of 24 trains each. Six trains will go to Bardhaman, five to Kharagpur, three to Krishnanagar and one to Durgapur.
“The state government has already successfully brought back nearly one lakh people but still approximately 4 lakh people are stranded outside. We have made a survey and trains have been arranged based on it. There will be an arrangement of buses and cabs for the passengers to travel to their respective destinations from the terminating railway stations”, the official added.
The passengers will have to go through medical protocols right at the station premises as they alight from the trains.
Towards our commitment to helping all our people stuck in different parts of the country and who want to return back to Bengal, I am pleased to announce that we have arranged 105 additional special trains. (1/2)
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 14, 2020
