Demand for Shramik special trains goes down

The demand for Shramik Special trains, meant to ferry stranded migrant workers, has come down drastically for the past few days from the state governments.

Since May 1, the day the services of Shramik Special trains started, Indian Railways operated total 4,197 trains and ferried over 57 lakh passengers.

While 81 trains are in transit, 4,116 have reached their destinations as on Wednesday. Only 10 more Shramik trains are in the pipeline.

At the same time 256 trains were cancelled by the state governments since May 1 with highest in Maharashtra followed by Gujarat and Karnataka.

Maharashtra cancelled 105 trains, Gujarat 47, Karnataka 38 and Uttar Pradesh 30 trains, the railways said.

As railways demanded minimum 1,000 to 1,200 passengers for each Shramik Special trains, in several places states could not find required numbers. This also lead to cancellation of trains by state, said the officials.

With demand for Shramik special trains going down, the railways likely to take a decision to suspend its services soon.

As most of the states sent registered migrant workers to their home states, the demand for Shramik Special trains has reduced, said an official in the railways.

Earlier, Railway Board chairman V K Yadav said the railways is ready to operate Shramik Special trains as long as the states demand it.

While the railways started operation of 200 regular time tabled trains daily from June 1, over 28 lakh passengers booked ticket till June 30. Besides, most of the workers already reached their home states and remaining workers may want to stay back since factories have started functioning, said an official.