Crowds throng railway station in hope of catching a train home

The numbers have been increasing since Tuesday, after the government started passenger train services, in a step towards resuming rail services in a graded manner.

The roads leading to the New Delhi railway station have been among the busiest in the city, with migrants from across Delhi and neighbouring states visiting the station in the hope of boarding a train home.

People who arrived at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) by a special train search for transport options to take them onward, in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/ Hindustan Times)

Police and Railways officials on the ground say that in the last few days, hundreds of migrant labourers have been visiting the station to book tickets at the counters, despite the Railways accepting only e-tickets and the counters being shut. On May 12, the Railways had started 15 pairs of special passenger trains on 30 routes, to and from New Delhi, for which bookings can only be done online.

The numbers have been increasing since Tuesday, after the government started passenger train services, in a step towards resuming rail services in a graded manner. A large section of the migrant workers, who are unable to get e-tickets, have been walking to the stations to try their luck at the ticket counters. Many others have left the government’s shelter homes and are walking to their villages in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, said officials.

The sudden increase of visitors to the railway station has prompted the police and government authorities to reach out to them outside the station, get their Covid-19 tests conducted and help them register for the special Shramik trains. For Shramik trains, migrant workers have to register with the government and need not pay a ticket fee. Interstate bus services continue to remain shut.

The government authorities on Saturday reached out to around 150 such migrant workers sitting on the pavements near the station entrances. A kiosk, with two police personnel and a district administration official, has been set up to answer queries and guide migrants on the procedure to register for train journeys. By late afternoon, at least 70 of them were ferried from the station to a screening facility in the district, after which they will be registered for Shramik Special trains and sent back home, said officials.

District officials said that on Friday evening, they had shifted over 65 migrants to a thermal screening facility and then to shelter homes, to get them registered for the Shramik trains.

At least 7,000 migrants have left for their home towns in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in five Shramik trains — a special arrangement by the state governments under guidelines issued by the Union home ministry on April 29. While four trains left for Bihar, one for MP, another one left for Tamil Nadu on Saturday noon, which also included around 200 Tablighi Jamaat participants, who were recently discharged from quarantine facilities.

Subhash Kumar, his wife Geeta (goes only by her first name) and his brother-in-law started from their rented accommodation in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar at 6am, on foot, hoping to book tickets at the station. They were able to get an autorickshaw midway, at Kirti Nagar, and were dropped at the station for Rs 200 at around 9am. Till 1.30pm, the trio was waiting to regroup with three other family members, who have been stranded in different places across the city.

“We have been trying to make online reservations for four days, but have failed to do so. Last night, we decided to pack up and leave for the station, and enquire about the procedure or catch a private bus from here,” said Kumar, 28, of Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow. It was only later in the day that they got to know that buses they had spotted were ferrying migrants to screening centres.

In the hot afternoon, pavements outside the station were dotted with groups of people, seated with their luggage, waiting for the buses. Volunteers of a political party distributed food packets and cold drinks to the crowd.

Ravi Tandon, a construction labourer, who was accompanied by his wife and two children, was sitting with his head in his hands. He said that the family had been staying at a camp near Shivaji Stadium, but have run out of money and food. “We don’t have a ticket or any money. We just walked to the station to check if we could get a train; if not, we would start our journey to Chhattisgarh on foot. Here, a policeman told us they will ferry us in buses and make arrangements for train travel,” said Tandon, who plans to tend to a small patch of family land in his home town. He said that his father is unwell and mother is not stable, healthwise.

The crowd also included a group of 23 tourists from Jharkhand, who had been stuck at a hotel since March 22 and had run out of money. “We have been surviving on food distributed by the NGOs. We had taken rooms for Rs 1,000 a day. Today (Saturday), they handed us a bill of Rs 1.5 lakh, which was not even due. The NGO people helped us settle the matter. We hope to get on the buses being arranged here,” said Savita Das, one of the tourists.

The deputy commissioner of police, Railways, Harendra Singh, said that migrants reaching the station are being taken to shelters for screening. “We have been doing this, but people continue to pour into the station. Arrangements have been made with the district authorities to register them for Shramik specials,” said Singh.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Saturday also directed officials to ensure migrants do not walk on roads and railway tracks. Those doing so would be taken to the closest shelter facility, provided food and water till their travel arrangements to their home towns in special trains and buses, is arranged, as per the directive. It also asked officials to coordinate with the Railways to speed up the process of sending them to their home states.

Delhi’s chief secretary Vijay Dev, in a letter on Friday, had asked nodal officer, PK Gupta, to coordinate with the Railways for running more Shramik trains, so that travel of stranded migrant workers can be expedited.