In the first such move, the Railways on Friday operated a special train from Telangana to Jharkhand, carrying about 1,200 migrant workers.
The May Day gift to the labourers from Jharkhand has been to run the special train with 12 sleeper and four general compartments carrying about 1,200 people from the Lingampally suburbs station towards the western part of the Hyderabad city towards Hatia, a small town in Ranchi district, at 4.50 a.m.
“Today morning, a one-off special train was run from Lingampalli (in Telangana) to Hatia (in Jharkhand) on the request of the State Government of Telangana and as per the directions of Ministry of Railways,” a Railways spokesperson said.
The labourers were brought in about 56 buses from nearby construction sites to the station by the local police and district administration of Sangareddy where they were thermal screened, details taken before being allowed to board under the supervision of senior railway officials and the railway police.
The Lingampally station was barricaded to prevent outsiders from sneaking in with police guarding all the entrance and exit points for utmost security.
Top officials of the SCR informed that the operation was taken up based on the request of the TS government and was taken up in utmost secrecy taking into the light the incidents in Mumbai where rumours about special migrant special trains brought thousands of labourers to the railway stations.
The spokesperson stressed that the train, which left Lingampalli at around 5 a.m., was a “one-off special train” and any further trains will be planned only as per the directions of the Ministry of Railways and on request from both the originating and destination State governments.
The train will be a non-stop one with the railway authorities making all the arrangements for food and drinking water supply enroute as the journey could take up to 24 hours. In each bogie about 52 persons have been accommodated maintaining the mandatory social distancing inside with the RPF and GRP personnel taking care of the security, said top officials, wishing to remain anonymous.
“All necessary precautions such as prior screening of passengers, maintaining social distancing at station and in the train were followed,” the spokesperson added.
Incidentally, there have been protests from the migrant labourers in the district demanding they be allowed to go home as they were not having sufficient food or proper accommodation a day ago.
Published - May 01, 2020 12:01 pm IST
