Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 29
Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said on Friday that the demand for Shramik Special trains, which were introduced to move migrant workers to their home states, had been decreasing and the as of now there was a need for 450 more such trains.
The Railways since May 1 has operated some 3,840 such trains ferrying 52 lakh passengers. Yadav said, "It appears that the demand for these trains is declining from the originating state. 137 trains were flagged on Thursday and 172 on Wednesday. The demand for trains has been going down in the last two days," Yadav said.
Till last week 250 trains were being run daily. The Railways has been drawing flak over the last few days due to inordinate delay of Shramik Special trains owing to route congestion and inadequate supply of food and water. Reports of deaths of some passengers travelling on these trains over the past few days have triggered concerns over the lack of basic necessities amid the intense heat wave.
"Of 3,840 trains, 71 were diverted to deal with network congestion only between May 20 and 24.
Only four trains took more than three days to reach destination states in the north-eastern part of the country. These were long distance trains and incidents like landslide in Assam delayed the journey," Yadav said.
He said passengers with serious health issues, senior citizens, pregnant women and children below 10 years of age should board Shramik Special trains only for essential travel.
Body found in train toilet
Lucknow: A 38-year-old returning worker's body was found inside a toilet of a Shramik Special train that he had boarded four days ago. The body of Mohan Lal Sharma, a daily-wager in Mumbai, was found in the train toilet at the Jhansi station on Wednesday when the railway employees were sanitising it after it completed a round trip from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. TNS
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2yQiD56
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