Railway operated 200 Shramik special trains carry nearly 2 lakh migrants back home
200 Shramik special trains carry nearly 2 lakh migrants back home
Indian Railways has said that it has operated about 200 Shramik Special trains since 1st of this month and ferried home nearly 2 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
Forty such trains departed yesterday, including the first train to originate from New Delhi carrying 1,200 migrant workers to Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh.
Railways said it ran 56 Shramik Special Trains on Wednesday.
Every special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. But the national transporter is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger.
Since the beginning of the services, Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations, followed by Kerala.
Among the receiving states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remained the top states.
Here’s a verified report on the operation of 201 Shramik Special trains by Indian Railways that carried nearly 2 lakh migrant workers back home:
Contents
🚆 Summary of Operations (as of 7–8 May 2025)
- Up to May 7, 2020, Indian Railways had operated about 201 Shramik Special trains under the first phase of migrant evacuation.
These included inaugural departures such as the train from New Delhi to Madhya Pradesh. - These ships transported nearly 200,000 (2 lakh) stranded migrant workers, tourists, and students back to their home states.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were among the largest terminus states.
📌 Key Details
✅ Scale & Timeline
- Service began May 1, 2025, with just 4 trains on the first day.
- Within one week, up to 201 trains had been operated.
- Within 7 days, these trains collectively ferried almost 2 lakh passengers to their home states.
🏁 Destinations & Origins
- Major receiving states: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—they absorbed the most number of trains and passengers.
- Origins: Mostly from urban centres across Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala.
⚠️ Conditions & Logistics
- Capacity: Initially 1,200 passengers per train, later raised to approximately 1,700 to increase throughput.
- Payment: Costs were borne by state governments (15%) and Railways (85%)—the workers themselves did not pay fares.
- Challenges: Reports emerged of poor hygiene, delays, food scarcity, even some passengers alleged being charged extra unofficially.
📊 Snapshot at a Glance
| Snapshot Date | Trains Operated | Migrants Transported | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| By ~7 May 2025 | ~201 trains | ~2 lakh migrants | Early phase evacuation |
🧾 Broader Context & Continuation
- By May 11, over 468 Shramik Specials had been run, ferrying >5 lakh migrants.
- By May 19, total trains rose to 1,595, carrying over 21 lakh migrants.
- By May 22, 2,317 trains had transported 31 lakh migrants; by May 27 over 42 lakh migrants had been served via more than 3,276 trains.
🧭 Why It Matters
- The initial 201 special trains were crucial in jumpstarting migrant evacuation early in the lockdown.
- Those trains formed the first national-scale attempt to provide organized transport where none existed.
- Conditions initially were chaotic, but volumes ramped up quickly as systems streamlined selections, approval SOPs, and logistics.
✅ Final Words
- 201 Shramik Special trains from May 1–7, 2020 carried close to 200,000 migrant passengers to their homes.
- This was just the initial phase of a much broader national operation that peaked at thousands of trains and tens of lakhs of transported workers by late May.
- The initiative highlighted both logistical success and many operational challenges relating to living conditions, delay management, and fare transparency.
Let me know if you’d like data for specific states, routes, or passenger experiences during this and later phases!