Train with more than 1,100 labourers, pilgrims reaches Bengal from Rajasthan

Flower petals were showered on the train as it chugged into the platform, with state ministers Moloy Ghatak and Tapan Dasgupta waiting at the station to receive the passengers.

Over 1,100 labourers and pilgrims were greeted with flowers on Tuesday as they reached Dankuni in West Bengal’s Howrah district in a train from Rajasthan.

Police officers make announcements as a train carrying migrant workers, who were stranded in the western state of Rajasthan due to a lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), to their home state of eastern West Bengal, arrives at a railway station on the outskirts of Kolkata.(REUTERS)

The 24-coach train, which left Ajmer in the western state on Monday morning, reached Dankuni station at 10.40 am, official sources said.

Flower petals were showered on the train as it chugged into the platform, with state ministers Moloy Ghatak and Tapan Dasgupta waiting at the station to receive the passengers.

All 1,186 passengers, including women and children, were subjected to medical examination for any COVID-19 symptom at a camp set up by the Health Department outside the station.

Those exhibiting COVID-19-like symptoms would be provided requisite medical attention, while the rest would be transported to their destination in different districts of the state by buses, the sources said.

The coaches were emptied one at a time, maintaining social distancing norms, they said.

The Rajasthan chief secretary had recently written to his West Bengal counterpart, seeking his consent for sending home the stranded pilgrims and labourers from Ajmer and other places in the western state, amid the lockdown.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Sunday said that two trains -- one from Rajasthan and another from Kerala -- would bring home around 2,500 labourers, pilgrims and patients.

The train from Kerala, which left Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, is scheduled to reach Baharampur in Murshidabad district on Wednesday, the sources added.