105 more trains to ferry stranded migrants back home: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday that the state government has arranged 105 special trains to bring back stranded people from different parts of the country. The trains are expected to carry more than 1.5 lakh people from nearly 25 cities spread across 12 major states of the country in the next one month that includes migrant labourers, tourists and students.

"Towards our commitment helping people stuck in different parts of the country and who want to return to Bengal, I am pleased to announce that we have arranged 105 additional special trains. Over the coming days, these special trains will embark from different states for various destinations across Bengal bringing our people back home," Banerjee said through her official Twitter handle on Thursday.

The first of the 105 trains will start from New Delhi on Saturday and reach Howrah on Sunday morning. The highest number of trains are scheduled to come from Kerala where more than 1.5 lakh migrant labourers are stuck. There will be 28 trains coming from 11 various locations of the state. "More than 1.5 lakh migrant workers from Bengal are stuck in Kerala and so we need to make special arrangement for them. We are also looking for other alternative transport so that persons stranded in other parts of the state can be brought back in quick time but following norms of social distancing," a senior official of Nabanna said.

The second-highest number of trains will be coming from Maharashtra. A senior official informed that there will be 18 trains from six different locations of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Raigad, Amravati and Pune. Apart from Maharashtra, 10 trains will originate from three different locations of Tamil Nadu, 7 trains from Uttar Pradesh, 6 from Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana each, 5 from Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka each, 3 from Andhra Pradesh, 2 from Jammu and Kashmir and 1 from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh each.

These trains will ferry passengers to seven different locations of the state.

The highest number of trains (42) will travel to New Cooch Behar. Howrah and Malda Town are jointly second in the list and both these stations will see the arrival of 24 trains. Six trains will go to Burdwan, five to Kharagpur, three to Krishnanagar and one to Durgapur.

"The state government has already successfully brought back nearly one lakh people but still approximately 4 lakh people are stranded outside. We have made a survey and trains have been arranged based on it. There will be an arrangement of buses and cabs for the passengers to travel to their respective destinations from the terminating railway stations," the official added.

The passengers will have to go through medical protocols right at the station premises as they alight from the trains.