Seven Shramik special trains bring back 9,800 stranded people

PATNA: Seven Shramik special trains carrying about 9,800 migrant workers and others stranded in Kerala and four other states reached different places in Bihar on Wednesday.
Altogether 1,520 Shramik special trains have so far ferried about 20 lakh migrant workers and others to Bihar since May 2 after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) allowed these trains.
ECR chief public relations officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar said two Shramik special trains from Trippur and one from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu carried about 4,200 migrant workers and others to Hajipur and Motihari on Wednesday.Besides, one train each from Kalka in Haryana, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata in West Bengal and Calicut in Kerala reached Kiul, Patna, Siwan and Bhagalpur.
“Railways has been running Shramik special trains from other parts of the country on the demand of Bihar government. Railways has so far ferried stranded migrant workers and other people to 48 different places in Bihar either by special trains or by buses on their arrival by Shramik special trains,” he said.
Shramik special trains apart, 11 mail and express special trains from different places under the ECR jurisdiction, left for their destinations with 97% occupancy on Wednesday. “The Patna-New Delhi, Patna-Mumbai, Patna-Bengaluru, Patna-Chennai, Patna-Pune and Patna-Secunderabad trains continued to be crowded. Confirmed tickets were hardly available in these trains,” he said.
With relaxations and opening of various private sector companies under Unlock 1.0 from June 1, many people, who used to commute daily from places like Buxar, Ara, Bihta, Gaya, Jehanabad, Biharsharif, Barh and Mokama to Patna, have urged the Danapur railway administration to partially restore MEMU and DEMU trains on the Jhajha-Patna, Patna-Buxar and Patna- Gaya routes, so that they could join their duties in Patna.
Danapur divisional railway manager (DRM) Sunil Kumar said railways would review the feasibility to run a few pairs of local trains on different routes after June 8 for commuters. The Bihar Daily Passengers’ Association also urged the ECR GM and Danapur DRM to reconsider the genuine demands of the commuters.