5 trains carrying 6,000 migrants leave for UP and Bihar from Ludhiana

One train left for Bettiahin Bihar and four for Hardoi, Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur districts in Uttar Pradesh

Five trains carrying 6,000 migrants left for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from the city railway station on Sunday.

Migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar queue up for screening before boarding trains to their respective states, in Ludhiana, on Sunday. (Gurpreet Singh)

At 11am on Sunday, the first train left for Hardoi in UP with around 1,200 migrant workers, followed by another train that departed for Bettiah in Bihar at 2pm and later trains to Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh left for these districts.

As the number of passengers per train is more than 1,000, it has been taking around 2 to 3 hours from screening of passengers to make them board a train. Accordingly, the administration had decided to run five trains from 11am to 11pm, keeping a gap of three hours between departures of each train in a day.

Deputy commissioner Pradeep Agrawal said 20,000 migrants had left for their native places through Shramik Special trains in the last five days. He said more such trains will depart for other states in coming days.

Over 6.5 lakh migrants in Ludhiana have registered on Punjab helpline portal to travel back home.

Deputy commissioner clarified that only those migrants will be allowed to board these trains who had applied on web portal, www.covidhelp.punjab.gov.in.

He appealed to the migrants to cooperate with the district administration, so that their travel back home can be facilitated in a smooth manner.