No plans to operate Shramik Special trains: Indian Railways

With many states announcing restricted lockdown to curb raising Covid-19 cases, Indian Railways has said it has no plan to operate Shramik Special trains to facilitate to ferry migrant workers to their home states.

"Railways already operating a sufficient number of special trains. If required the Railways is ready to operate more trains. There is no need to operate Shramik Special trains," said an official in the Railways.

"Existing trains are enough to cater for the needs of passengers. The Railways also ready to operate more trains in a short time," said the official.

Presently, Indian Railways is running 1,402 special train services on an average per day. Total 5381 suburban train services and 830 Passenger train services are also operational. Apart from this, 28 special trains are being operated as clones of highly patronized trains with high patronage.

“Additional trains are being run during April-May 2021 to clear rush in Central Railway with 58 trains (29 pairs) and Western Railway with 60 trains (30 pairs). These trains are for destinations having high demand including Gorakhpur, Patna, Darbhanga, Varanasi, Guwahati, Barauni, Prayagraj, Bokaro, Ranchi and Lucknow," the Railways said.

Meanwhile, Central Railway has also tweeted that, "Central Railway FACTCHECK. There is some misinformation in social media that Shramik Special trains are being run. It is clarified that 'No such Shramik special trains' are run planned. Railways are running only special trains in summer. Please do not fall prey to rumours."

During Covid-19 lockdown last year, Indian Railways had operated a total of 4,615 Shramik Special trains to ferry 63 lakh migrant workers and stranded people to their native states.

The national transporter started Shramik Specials on May 1 last year and operated trains till July 9.