Indian Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said in a press conference on Saturday that since May 1, the railway has run 2600 labor special trains so far and through these 36 lakh migrant workers have reached their homes, whereas railways has planned to run 2600 laborers special trains in the next 10 days and the target is to bring more 36 lakh laborers to their homes.
Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said that in an effort to return to normalcy, the Railway Ministry will run 200 Mail Express trains from June 1. He said that for the last four days, on an average 260 special train run daily and three lakh workers are being helped from it every day.
He said that if we receive a request from any state government, then we are ready to run the train from any station within the state. Yadav said that 80 percent of the workers traveling in the labor special train are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The labor special train started operating from May 1 and free food and drinking water is made available to all the passengers. Social distancing and sanitation standards are being followed strictly within trains and stations, Yadav said that the labor special trains will continue till all the laborers reach their homes.
According to the last census, there are 4 crore migrant laborers in the country and the Railways have so far transported 36 lakh laborers through trains to their home state. The Ministry of Home Affairs informed that 40 lakh laborers have also reached their homes through interstate buses.
