1,420 leave for home in Bihar in first Sharmik special train from Ghaziabad

The first Sharmik special train, ferrying migrant workers to Bihar, departed from Ghaziabad junction Friday evening. As many as 1,420 persons who were stranded in

The first Sharmik special train, ferrying migrant workers to Bihar, departed from Ghaziabad junction Friday evening. As many as 1,420 persons who were stranded in the city after the nationwide lockdown was imposed boarded the train and will reach their home towns such as Muzaffarpur, Chappra and Hajipur in Bihar on Saturday.

HT Image

The officials of the Ghaziabad district administration said more trains will be roped in to take workers to their home towns.

On Friday afternoon, hundreds of passengers who had received text messages about confirmed seats on the train had reached the Ghanta Ghar Ramlila Ground where arrangements for checking their IDs and screening them for symptoms of coronavirus disease(Covid-19) had been put in place. They were later taken in Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) to Ghaziabad railway station, about 1km away.

“I had applied on the UP government portal— jansunwai.up.nic.in— a week ago to go back home, and received a text message on my mobile on Thursday. The message said that I should reach Ramlila Ground around 2pm. Since the company in Noida’s Sector 62 where I used to work is shut, I have no option but to return to my hometown Muzaffarpur,” said Manish Kumar, one of the first passengers to board the train.

Officials said the passengers did not have to pay for the tickets which were issued to them after they were screened at Ramlila Ground.

Laxman Mahto was stuck in Loni since the lockdown came into force on March 25 boarded the 20-coach train with five other family members. He had come from Muzaffarpur to visit his daughter on March 15.

“I had booked a ticket to return home in March, but the train was cancelled due to the lockdown. For the past two months, I had been staying in Loni. A neighbour got us registered on the UP government portal and we booked six seats to return to Bihar. These seats were confirmed through an SMS on Friday and we arrived at the Ramlila Ground,” said Mahto.

However, many people who want to go to their homes in Bihar were not able to get a confirmed seat on the train, and will have to wait longer. “On Thursday, I had got a call on my mobile asking me if I wish to go to my home town in Bihar but had not received any SMS. When I arrived at Ramlila Ground, officials told me that I will have to wait as I had not received a confirmatory SMS which is must for boarding the train. I even vacated my rented room in Karhera, and came here in the hope to board the train,” Mahesh Saini, who is an ice-cream vendor and is from Chappra in Bihar, added.

Ramzan Ali, who is from Saran district in Bihar, and had come from Khoda said only two of his eight family members received confirmatory messages and the rest will have to wait.

Siddhanth Mishra, a cloth trader in Khoda village, had registered 11 of his family members and was lucky enough to leave for home with all of them. “ We will be travelling to our home town Nalanda, which is about 150km from Muzaffarpur, where the train will drop us. We received the SMS two days ago and were ready with our luggage. I know how to use the internet and mobile applications, so we registered on the portal and are now heading home. But I also feel bad for other migrant workers who don’t know how to use smartphones and internet, and are headed home on foot with their children and belongings,” Mishra said.

There were many people from other states who had reached Ramlila Grounds hoping they will be able to go home as well.

“After I reached here, I was told that train will ferry passengers going to Bihar. I had vacated my rented room in Delhi, and arrived here to go to my home town in Mau district in UP. It seems we will now have to look for a shelter home here. We will wait in Ghaziabad, and see if we can get a train or a UPSRTC bus that might be plying from Morta” said Kripa Shankar Pandey, who had come with his wife and children from Gandhinagar in Delhi.

Many who are fortunate enough to be able to head home hope they will find a stable source of income in search of which they had come to cities like Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.

“I hope that I get a job in my home town in Vaishali district in Bihar. I think I will not return to the city, and just want to reach my home somehow. My landlord in Khoda has been very helpful. Since I got seats for my family, I vacated my rented room and somehow arrived here from Khoda. The SMS I received allowed my family to move out of Khoda which has been sealed because of the coronavirus outbreak,” said Santosh Kumar who worked as a driver in Delhi. After the lockdown, Kumar was left out of work and decided to head home.

Officials said until Thursday, as many as 37,438 persons had registered themselves with the UP government portal for travelling from Ghaziabad to Bihar.

“Those who did not receive a confirmatory SMS will have to wait for some more time. We cleared the boarding passes of about 1,420 persons for the first train to Bihar. In the next few days, we expect that more trains will head towards this and other routes. We will also soon receive the list of people who have registered on the portal want to go to other states,” said Sanjay Kumar, officer on special duty, Ghaziabad Development Authority(GDA), who is also in-charge of travel arrangements of migrant workers in the district.

“The migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh who have not registered on the portal are also being taken in UPSRTC buses from Morta,” he added.

Additional district magistrate Santosh Kumar Vaishya said there was around a two-hour delay in departure of the train as there were a lot of people at the station who had to be screened and allotted seats. The scheduled departure time of the train was 7pm, but it left the station at 9.10pm.

“We have issued nearly 1420 boarding passes. The train will directly stop at three stations of Muzaffarpur, Chappra and Hajipur in Bihar. All passengers were screened and food packets were also provided to them,” he added.

According to district officials so far, nearly 17,007 migrant workers, including 10,219 from UP, have been sent to their home towns with the help of 461 buses.