Coronavirus | 70,000 migrants return on 67 trains

Railways say 21 more trains will take home people stranded in various places across the country.

Last leg: Migrants waiting to board a bus after arriving from Karnataka by train at Danapur in Bihar on Tuesday.

The Indian Railways on Tuesday said it had run 67 ‘Shramik Special’ trains so far since May 1, transporting about 70,000 stranded migrants. “Till now 67 ‘Shramik Specials’ have been run by various zonal railways. Till May 4 [Monday], we had run 55 trains,” a railway spokesperson said.

First Shramik Special train leaves Vijayawada for Maharashtra

The spokesperson added that 21 more such trains were expected to be run on Tuesday from various places including Bengaluru, Surat, Sabarmati, Jalandhar, Kota and Ernakulam.

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Union Home Ministry spokesperson Punya Salila Srivastava also said these special trains had so far ferried about 70,000 migrants.

24 coaches

“On an average, these trains are carrying 1,000 passengers each,” the railways said. The ‘Shramik Special’ train has 24 coaches with each coach having a capacity of 72 seats. However, this capacity has now been reduced to about 50 due to social distancing norms.