In a bid to trasnport more migrants, the railways on Monday decided to carry around 1,700 passengers on board its ‘Shramik Special’ trains instead of the current 1,200.
According to an order issued, the railway zones have also been asked to provide three stops in the destination state other than the terminating station, at the request of the state governments.
The order comes days after Railway Minister Piyush Goyal appealed to all states, especially those that have allowed very few trains, to give approvals liberally.
The issue of approvals for these migrant trains was also discussed in the home secretary’s video conference with chief secretaries on Sunday.
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah too had appealed to West Bengal to give swift approvals for these trains.
The ‘Shramik Special’ trains has 24 coaches with a capacity to carry 72 passengers in each coach.
Currently, these trains are running with 54 passengers in each coach due to social distancing norms.
So far, the Indian Railways has ferried over five lakh passengers since May 1 on a total of 468 ‘Shramik Special’ trains.
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