Migrants being checked for documents and tickets before boarding a Shramik special train. File pic/Suresh Karkera
The Railways flagged off the last Shramik special train from the city — Mumbai CSMT-Manipur — which left at 10 pm on Tuesday. CR chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar confirmed that there were no pending demands for more Shramik trains with the railways from the state.
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The entire saga of Shramik specials began on May 1 - Labour Day with the first train from Maharashtra leaving for Bhopal, a short route and ended on June 30 with the train leaving for Jiribam (Assam) from Mumbai, one of the longest routes.
A Shramik special train leaving from Bhiwandi station to Gorakhpur. File pic/Suresh Karkera
While the Western Railway (WR) has operated a total 1,230 Shramik special trains from May 2, approximately carrying 18.50 lakh migrant labourers and their families, CR has so far operated more than 600 trains ferrying more than 8.5 lakh migrant labourers across the country. There were a total of 11.92 lakh migrants sent from Maharashtra to various states from a total four railways -- CR, WR, KR and SCR (South Central Rly)
Acting at the request of state government, running these special trains was a big challenge for the Railways. Right from the formation of rakes, sanitisation, rake maintenance, fulfilling the requirement of staff, provision of food, co-ordination with state governments, safety, punctuality, train operation and overall mission 'Back Home,' IR had to ensure all operations went smoothly under COVID-19 circumstances.
These Shramik specials were run for many states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The mission also involved direct train services from CR to states of Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur for the first time.
Of the total trains operated, about 66 per cent were run by Mumbai division, 23 per cent by Pune and about 11 per cent by Solapur, Bhusaval and Nagpur divisions. As maximum trains were run by Mumbai division, the other four divisions put in their might by maintaining 8-9 rakes at their depots on days when demand peaked.
Of the total 1,230 trains on WR, Mumbai division had the highest 717 trains, Rajkot ran 1,171, Ahmedabad operated 260, Vadodara deployed 100, Bhavnagar had 30, while 6 were from Ratlam division.
May 1
Day first Shramik train was flagged off from Maharashtra
66%
Percent of Shramik trains run by Mumbai division
1,230
Total no. of Shramik trains operated by WR
600
Total no. of Shramik trains operated by CR
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