Hyderabad: Starting with the First Shramik Special Train being rolled out from the Zone on May 1, the South Central Railway has run 196 Shramik special trains transporting over 2.40 lakh migrant workers to their native destinations till date. While, the Zone transported first one lakh passengers in 16 days, the next one lakh passengers were transported in just 7 days. Out of these, 128 services have been run from Telangana State to transport 1.56 lakh passengers while 53 trains ran from Andhra Pradesh to carry over 66,000 passengers and 15 trains ran from Maharashtra to carry around 20, 000passengers. A comprehensive and well co-ordinated plan of action has been executed by the Zone, enabling smooth completion of the task.
Extensive arrangements were made at the railway stations from where the migrant special trains have been originating on the Zone. Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, South Central Railway has been personally monitoring the entire operations in close co-ordination with the Principal Head of Departments (PHoDs) at the HQ and Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of various Divisions. A sizable strength of Railway workforce drawn from all departments and were tasked to handle the entire operations, duly ensuring that the protocol for precautions against COVID-19 is adhered.
While the respective State government authorities handled the registration, identification and booking of passengers’ trains, Railways has drawn a comprehensive plan so as to ensure the total Train Operations are efficiently deployed to provide a hassle free travel to all its passengers. Rail operations were scheduled with precision, ensuring due process of sanitization of railway stations and trains thoroughly. Movement of the trains was continuously monitored, giving precedence to all aspects of safety and security throughout the journey. Railway officials took the lead to streamline boarding of the passengers in the special trains after completion of the other formalities by the state govt. authorities. Aspects related to supply of food and water etc., were also taken care at every stage, in coordination with the state governments. Norms associated with social distancing, wearing of masks etc., were closely kept under check by the Railway personnel.
As part of the operations, a record number of 43 Shramik Special trains were run within a span of 12 hours from various railway stations on SCR’s jurisdiction towards destination in various states of Central and North India. The big scale operation was undertaken between 04.00 pm yesterday (May 23) and the early hours of today ( May 24). Forty (40) of these Shramik Special trains have run from railway stations in Telangana, with Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Kacheguda, Ghatkesar and Lingampalli mainly serving the purpose. In addition Mahbubnagar and Kazipet stations also handled the train. Destinations include 10 in Bihar, 06 in Jharkhand, 08 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Odisha and 04 in Other States. In a simultaneous move, three Shramik special trains commenced journey with migrant workers from Nambur (1 train) and Kadapa stations (1 train) in Andhra Pradesh and Aurangabad station in Maharashtra, taking the tally of rail operations to 43 shramik special trains within 12 hours, with a single day record total of around 40,000 workers availing the transport facility on the Zone.
The General Manager of SCR, Gajanan Mallya expressed his appreciation of the hard work being rendered by the staff and officials involved in this major evacuation task and expressed optimism that the team will continue to excel until the entire job is complete. Assuring that the administration will stand to take care of each of the workforce, Mallya advised them to also follow due precautions during the course their duties. He also made it clear that, South Central Railway is ready to handle all the needs for special trains in co-ordination with state governments, in line with the plans spelt out by the Chairman Railway Board, V.K.Yadav who has targeted the run of 2600 Shramik special trains in the next 10 days.
