The first “special train” to transport migrants stranded by the nationwide lockdown left Telangana for Jharkhand at around 4.30 am, carrying 1,200 people from Lingampally in the southern state to Jharkhand’s Hatia district. The 24-coach train, which usually seats 72 people in a compartment, contained only 54 people in each in accordance with social distancing guidelines. All passengers were also screened for symptoms before being allowed to board.
According to sources, a second such train is scheduled to depart Kerala’s Ernakuam at 6 pm for Bhubaneshwar in Odisha. Sources have said the train, which will carry over 1,000 people, will be thoroughly disinfected and all passengers, who will be brought to the station by the state, will be required to maintain social distancing.
The train that left Telangana this morning, carrying migrant workers from the IIT Kandi campus in Hyderabad, was kept low-key because the state did not want a repeat of the incident near Mumbai’s Bandra station, where thousands of stranded migrant workers defied the lockdown after rumours of a special train to take the home.
“We wanted to avoid what happened in Mumbai a few days ago,” a top police officer told a news channel.
“There are around 15 lakh migrants in the state and it is unsafe to send them by buses to towns and villages between 500 and 1,000 kilometres away in such hot weather. Social distancing will be a casualty,” Telangana minister Srinivas Yadav said, adding that he had spoken to Minister of State for Home Ministry, G Kishan Redy, about a special train.
Earlier today Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted to confirm the centre had accepted his request to run a special train to return people to the state, saying: “The central government accepted our demand to bring back workers. We immediately started work to bring them back safely”.
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