‘Shramik Special’ trains meant to send the stranded migrant workers to their home have new guidelines in place. It will now carry more passengers 1700 to the earlier 1200 .
Ever since the lockdown on March 24, lakhs of migrant workers have been left in the lurch with no work in cities and hence they were keen to return home to be with their families.
Further 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. It also said that the train capacity should be equal to the number of sleeper berths on the train.
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.
Meanwhile, in a first step towards normalisation , Indian Railways is set to restart passenger train operations with special trains from New Delhi connecting 15 destinations from May 12 – Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad,Bengaluru,Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad&Jammu Tawi.
“All passenger trains will be run only with AC coaches and limited stops. The fare will be equivalent to the ticket fare that is charged for the Rajdhani trains,” said the ministry. These trains — meant for 15 destinations across the country — will run from New Delhi railway station. The online booking of tickets will start at 4 pm on May 11.
Also it has been reported by a news agency that shares of Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation jumped 5 per cent in early trade on Monday after the Indian Railways said it will gradually resume passenger train services from May 12
