NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has deployed over 70 special trains to ferry nearly 80,000 stranded migrant workers, students and tourists in the past five days.
Railway officials said 55 special trains had started or completed the single one-way trip till Monday and nearly 30 more trains were scheduled on Tuesday, primarily from stations including Bengaluru, Surat, Sabarmati, Jalandhar, Kota and Ernakulam. Each train carries about 1,000 passengers.
They added such trains will continue to run till states put their demand to railways. “We can go on running more than 500 such trains,” said a source.
Meanwhile, officials said the special trains that are originating from or heading to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh now face no issue as far as who pays for the passengers ticket is concerned.
“While states such as UP, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh have said they will pay for tickets for all outgoing and incoming stranded migrants Jharkhand and Bihar have said they will pay for the incoming passengers,” an official said.
He added with Andhra Pradesh agreeing to pay for the tickets of outgoing passengers, the number of such states has increased. Gujarat and Telangana are the two other states that are paying for passengers going from their states.
The official said this largely takes care of most of the passengers travelling in the special trains as these are the major chunk of states which are either sending or receiving passengers.
“There could be some peculiar case if a train is going from a state, which is not ready to pay for the ticket, and the receiving state also refuses to pay from its kitty. We expect the problem will be resolved even in such cases,” said another official.
Railway officials said 55 special trains had started or completed the single one-way trip till Monday and nearly 30 more trains were scheduled on Tuesday, primarily from stations including Bengaluru, Surat, Sabarmati, Jalandhar, Kota and Ernakulam. Each train carries about 1,000 passengers.
They added such trains will continue to run till states put their demand to railways. “We can go on running more than 500 such trains,” said a source.
Meanwhile, officials said the special trains that are originating from or heading to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh now face no issue as far as who pays for the passengers ticket is concerned.
“While states such as UP, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh have said they will pay for tickets for all outgoing and incoming stranded migrants Jharkhand and Bihar have said they will pay for the incoming passengers,” an official said.
He added with Andhra Pradesh agreeing to pay for the tickets of outgoing passengers, the number of such states has increased. Gujarat and Telangana are the two other states that are paying for passengers going from their states.
The official said this largely takes care of most of the passengers travelling in the special trains as these are the major chunk of states which are either sending or receiving passengers.
“There could be some peculiar case if a train is going from a state, which is not ready to pay for the ticket, and the receiving state also refuses to pay from its kitty. We expect the problem will be resolved even in such cases,” said another official.
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