Indian Railways seeks demand from states to run Shramik special trains

Indian Railways on Tuesday (June 9) asked the states to provide a "comprehensive residual" demand for Shramik Special trains to ferry migrants to their homes by June 10.

Hours after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to complete the process of ferry migrants to their home in the next 15 days, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav in his letter to Chief Secretaries of all the states said that following the apex court direction, the railways would provide Shramik Special trains within the period of 24 hours of the request from the states to facilitate the movement of migrant workers.

"...You may please advise the comprehensive residual demand for Shramik Special Trains for the movement of stranded workers from your state/UT along with the number of travellers, originating station, destination station, schedule, and dates by which the transportation shall be completed. The details may kindly be communicated through an official letter by June 10," he said in the letter.

Since May 1 the railways have operated over 4,300 Shramik Special trains to transport approximately 60 lakh persons to their destination states.

The top court on Tuesday directed the Centre and state governments to send all the migrant workers to their native places within 15 days and formulate employment schemes after conducting their skill mapping to rehabilitate them.