116k migrant workers reach Bihar by special trains, buses

nPATNA:: About 116,000 lakh people reached Bihar on Thursday through special trains and buses arranged for them from different parts of the country, said officials.

“Around 50,910 migrant workers were scheduled to arrive by 34 special trains Thursday. Besides, another 65,306 had come today[thursday] by 2,200 buses through the borders of Gopalganj and Kaimur, said Anupam Kumar, Bihar’s information and public relations department secretary.

Another 46,795 migrant workers were scheduled to reach Bihar by 32 trains on Friday, he added. This meant that Bihar would have received over 1.62 lakh migrants from other states in 48 hours, beginning Thursday.

The trains scheduled Thursday were coming from Karmnasha (Uttar Pradesh), Chandigarh, Delhi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Gurugram, Bangalore, Mangalore, Allepy, Mumbai, Thane, Mohali, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ajmer Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Bibinagar and Agra.

“We are working at maximum capacity to operate trains to get our migrant workers. It’s a big challenge for us, but we are equal to the task.

“As per the chief minister’s directive, we have to facilitate in the next seven days all those who want to come to the state either by trains or buses. We are planning more trains in the coming few days,” said Kumar.

A total of 225,000 migrant workers are already staying at 4,671 block-level quarantine centres of Bihar to prevent them from going directly to their villages in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.