Indian Railways has operationalised 4,197 “Shramik Special” trains from various States across the country till June 3 and ferried more than 58 lakh migrants through these trains in the last 34 days.
The ministry said that these 4197 trains originated from various states. The top five States/UTs from where maximum trains originated are Gujarat (1026 Trains), Maharashtra(802 Trains), Punjab(416 Trains), Uttar Pradesh (294 Trains) and Bihar (294 Trains).
“These “Shramik Special” Trains were terminated in various States across the country. The top five states where maximum trains terminated are Uttar Pradesh (1682), Bihar (1495), Jharkhand(197), Odisha (187) and West Bengal (156),” it said.
Subsequent to the Ministry of Home Affairs order regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains, Indian Railways is operating “Shramik Special” trains form 1st May.
It may be noted that trains running now are not facing any congestion.
In addition to Shramik specials, Railways are running 15 pairs of special Rajdhani type trains connecting New Delhi and started 200 more time tabled trains on 1st June, it added.
Meanwhile, the Indian Railways has refunded Rs 1885 Cr to passengers against cancellation of tickets during the period of March 21 and May 31.
“Indian Railways had suspended its regular passenger train services during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the highly contagious Corona virus (COVID-19) in India. After these trains were cancelled en masse, Railways faced the challenge to return a huge amount of money towards refund to the rail passengers,” it added.
All these tickets are booked through the online mode. The entire cost of ticket purchased has been refunded, it said, adding that the money has been transferred in the account from where the payment was earlier made at the time of the booking of the ticket.