Now, 1,700 passengers, 3 stops for Shramik trains

In a bid to ferry more migrants, the railways on Monday decided to carry around 1,700 passengers on board its 'Shramik Special' trains instead of the current 1,200.

According to an order issued, the railway zones have also been asked to provide three stops in the destination state other than the terminating station, at the request of the state governments.

It also said that the train capacity should be equal to the number of sleeper berths on the train.

The order comes days after Railway Minister Piyush Goyal appealed to all states, especially those that have allowed very few trains, to give approvals liberally.

The issue of approvals for these migrant trains was also discussed in the home secretary's video conference with chief secretaries on Sunday.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah too had appealed to West Bengal to give swift approvals for these trains.

The 'Shramik Special' trains has 24 coaches with a capacity to carry 72 passengers in each coach.

Currently, these trains are running with 54 passengers in each coach due to social distancing norms.

So far, the Indian Railways has ferried over five lakh passengers since May 1 on a total of 468 'Shramik Special' trains.

Bihar has accepted the most workers back with 100 trains, West Bengal has given nod to two, while eight more trains are in the pipeline.

"The Railways has a capacity to run 300 trains per day and we want to maximise it. We want to carry as many migrants home as possible over the next few days and have appealed to states to send approvals," said a senior official explaining the move.