Shramik special trains: Passengers advised to download Aarogya Setu App

Indian Railways has issued a set of guidelines for its zones for running Shramik special trains to ferry stranded people and this also includes passengers being advised to download the Aarogya Setu App.

“The train originating state will encourage all passengers to download and use Aarogya Setu App," the guidelines said.

The government has already made it mandatory for government and private company employees to download the App, which tracks patients with COVID-19 and alerts others in the proximity of patients.

The Railways also said that before starting the train, they needed written approval from both the originating and receiving state governments. Besides, the state governments have to provide adequate security at designated railway stations.

The local state government authority has to purchase bulk tickets, hand over tickets of such trains to passengers cleared by them, collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to the Railways. The total ticket fare is Rs 50, which includes complimentary meals and drinking water.

Those approved by concerned officers of originating states will be allowed to enter the station premises.

"Each Shramik Special train shall be a non-stop train bound for a single destination. Normally, the Shramik Special trains will be run for distances more than 500 Km. These trains will not stop at any in between station before the destination station. The train, with full length composition with social distancing (not counting the inside middle berths), can carry approximately 1200 passengers each," the guidelines said.

"The originating state shall plan the group of travellers accordingly. The occupancy of train should not be less than 90 per cent," the guidelines stated.

On arrival at their destination, the passengers will be received by state government authorities, who would make all arrangements for their screening quarantine, if necessary, and further travel. The receiving state will make adequate security arrangements at the railway station.

The Railways, on May 1, rolled out non-stop Shramik special trains to ferry migrant workers, students and others stranded since the nationwide lockdown.

The Railways plans to operate special trains as per the requirement of state governments. It is ready to operate 400 special trains and increasing up to 1000 trains for another 15 days, said the officials.