Migrants carried to northern states from Maha in six trains

As many as six Shramik special trains were operated from various cities in Maharashtra to ferry the stranded migrants to their home states on Thursday, the Central Railway (CR) said. The CR said the first train on Thursday was run between Panvel and Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh at 12.10 am.

Later in the day, the railway authorities operated Shramik special trains between Thane-Bapudham Motihari (Bihar), Ahmednagar-Unnao (UP), Urali-Rewa (MP), and Akola- Jabalpur (MP) till 8 pm. "Except for a train comprising 20 coaches, all other trains were of 24 coaches. Each train carried approximately 1,200 migrants registered and nominated by the state government," a senior railway official said.

The state government authorities said a Shramik special train departed from Aurangabad for Bhopal with around 1,200 migrants from Aurangabad, Nanded, Beed, Osmanabad and Jalna districts on Thursday night. They also said that the migrant labourers were allowed to board the train as per the social distancing norms and after they were screened by the health department.

The Aurangabad district administration said that the train was completely sanitised before the migrants were allowed to board it and they were provided food and water as well..