First passenger special train from Delhi arrives in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: Amid the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 epidemic, the first passenger special super-fast Rajdhani express train from Delhi arrived in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.
Total 1006 passengers arrived Chhattisgarh. Of 1006 passengers, as many as 457 passengers alighted at Raipur railway station while 549 migrants were alighted at Bilaspur railway station.
All the passengers seemed relieved to reach their home state.
One of passengers in Raipur railway station, 32 year old woman, who resides in the state capital, had gone to her maternal home in Bhopal in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, was stuck there with her six-year-old daughter.
"I travelled to Bhopal well after examination of my daughter in March. But after the lockdown was enforced, we were just stuck there and our return tickets were cancelled twice", she said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the arrangements in Bhopal railway station, she said that the family members were stopped at least a kilometre away from station and passengers had to wait in long queues to enter the premises. We were desperate to return our home in Raipur and now, we are happy to come back home, she added.
Raipur district administration PRO Pankaj Gupta told TOI "All the passengers were examined at the station with health check-up, thermal screening and pulse oximeter. As many as 17 teams were deployed for the health checkup of the passengers. Of this, 12 teams were deployed near the main gate for the inquiry of passengers arriving Raipur and five team near the old main gate for passengers going to Bilaspur from Raipur.
All the passengers were instructed to stay in the home quarantine for 14 days and follow all guidelines for the protection and prevention of Corona virus. The home quarantine stamp was also placed on the hands of all the passengers.
A number of buses were also arranged by the Raipur Municipal Corporation to leave the passengers in different places of the city. Similarly the platform of the station was sanitized before the arrival of the train.
Bilaspur district administration PRO KP Sai told TOI that 549 passengers of Bilaspur, Korba, Janjgir-Champa, Mungeli, Ambikapur, Koriya and Raigarh districts were thermal screened and the samples of each passengers having symptoms of Covid-19 were taken as they alighted the train in Bilaspur railway station.
Information about travel their history, phone number, address of the asymptomatic passengers were taken and a stamp was also put on their hands. They were instructed to stay at home quarantine.
Buses and small vehicles were arranged for passengers of all major places like Bilaspur, Janjgir, Champa, Koriya Ambikapur and other districts. Also, manual passes were issued to passengers for inter-district and inter-state travel.