As India stands with the migrant workers, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal hailed the active participation of UP and Bihar in processing trains for their migrants, saying 80 per cent of the labour trains are terminating in these two states. 

The Indian Railways has operated 1,074 Shramik Special trains since May 1, ferrying more than 14 lakh workers, it said Saturday. On Friday, the Railways said it had received more than 1,000 approvals from states in the last 15 days to ferry migrants home, with most workers being received by Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar. 

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also said Indian Railways will run 200 non-AC trains daily from the 1st of the next month. In a series of tweets yesterday, the Railway Minister said online booking will start soon. These trains will be run in addition to the Shramik Special Trains and Indian Railways is planning to double the numbers of Shramik Trains to bring more relief to the migrant workers.

The Railway Minister said, in the future, numbers of Shramik Special trains will be increased on a large scale.

Mr Goyal also added State governments are requested to help the workers and register them with the nearest station and give the list to the railways so that the railway workers can run special trains. He said workers are requested to stay in their place. He assured that Indian Railways will take the workers to their destination.

Today, Union Home Ministry has issued revised Standard Operating Procedure, SOP for the movement of stranded workers by train. It has asked states and Union territories to coordinate with Railways to ferry stranded migrant workers to their homes.

According to the SOP, the movement of Shramik Special trains shall be permitted by the Ministry of Railways in consultation with Home Ministry. All States and UTs should designate nodal authorities and make necessary arrangements for receiving and sending such trains.

The train schedules including stoppages and destinations will be finalized by the Railway Ministry based on the requirement of States and UTs. After finalizing, Railways will communicate to states for making suitable arrangements for sending and receiving such stranded people. The SOP said that sending States and Union Territories and Railways will ensure that all passengers are screened and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed to board the train. During boarding and travel, all passengers will have to observe social distancing. On arrival to their destination, the traveling passengers will have to adhere to the protocols prescribed by the destination States and Union Territories.stranded persons.