Indian Railways to take decision on discontinuing services of Shramik Special trains soon

With the demand for Shramik Special trains, meant to ferry migrant labourers, coming down drastically, the Indian Railways is likely to take a decision on discontinuing its services soon.

As on May 31, the railways has received demands from states to run only 321 Shramik Special trains. If the states did not ask more Shramik Special trains, the railways may discontinue the services after running 321 trains in a couple of days. Most of these trains are scheduled to go West Bengal from Maharashtra and Gujarat, said an official in the railways.

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With most of the states sent registered migrant workers to their home states, the demand for Shramik Special trains reduced.

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

Uttar Pradesh already announced its plan to discontinue to receive any Shramik Special trains.

With the railways operating 200 regular time tabled trains daily from June 1, the demand for Shramik Special trains will reduce. 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.

Since May 1, the railways operated 4000 Shramik Special trains ferrying over 56 lakh migrant workers and stranded students to their home states. Uttar Pradesh received highest number of trains followed by Bihar, said an official.