After having tonnes of discussions & drafts, the Indian Railways finally ran its first train since the lockdown on Friday. The train was made operational between Telangana and Jharkhand, carrying about 1200 migrants to their homes in Jharkhand.
The running of this first train came as a Labour Day gift to these workers who were brought in by 56 busses to the railway station by district administration & local police of the Sangareddy. After reaching the station, all the migrant workers were thermal scanned with mandatory details of them being noted down for the record.
“Today morning, a one-off special train was run from Lingampalli (in Telangana) to Hatia (in Jharkhand) on the request of the State Government of Telangana and as per the directions of Ministry of Railways,” a Railways spokesperson said.
The authorities associated with the operation clarified that it was planned with high-secrecy in order to avoid any panic situations or huge gatherings like that in Mumbai. Further, while talking about the train & its operations, they said that it would be a non-stop train with all the arrangements for food & water supply being looked over by the railway authorities. They clarified that in order to maintain social-distancing, each bogie on the train accommodated only 52 people.
“All necessary precautions such as prior screening of passengers, maintaining social distancing at the station and in the train were followed,” the spokesperson added.