Indian Railways crosses the milestone of transporting a total of more than one million stranded passengers to their home states through Shramik Special trains since its inaugural MAY DAY run.
Besides, nearly 50,000 passengers have travelled on AC Specials to 15 destinations across the country since May 12 amid the lockdown.
However after many cases of passengers travelling in trains were later found to be COVID-19 positive, the Railways has started keeping records of destination address of all passengers booking their tickets to help facilitate contact tracing in case infections are detected among them later.
The provision to include the destination address has been made on the IRCTC website from May 13, said a railway official.
The official said that keeping in view the coronavirus crisis, it will be mandatory for passengers to fill up their address details for any bookings.
In less than 15 days, the state-run transporter operated 800 Shramik Special trains till May 14 across the country with assengers being given free meals and water onboard.
Of these, Uttar Pradesh received the maximum number of trains followed by Bihar, according to railways.
Shramik Special trains are being run by the Railways only after concurrence is given both by the State which is sending the passengers and the State which is receiving them.
Acting upon 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 had decided to operate “Shramik Special” trains.
These 800 trains were terminated in various states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal.
Proper screening of passengers is ensured before boarding the train.
In Ac Specials, total 2,34,411 passengers have booked their berths till now with railways earning Rs 45.30 cr from the sale of the tickets.