Special train from Mumbai reaches Ranchi with only 30 passengers

Express News Service
RANCHI: Much to the disappointment of district and Railway officials, the very first special train, arranged to meet the rush of migrants queuing up at railway stations to reach their homes to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020, reached Ranchi station with only 30 passengers.

Interestingly, according to official records, at least 184 passengers were supposed to arrive here, but 154 disappeared in between Mumbai and Ranchi Stations.

Sources in the railways told that the train was stopped at Nimiyaghat Station near Gomoh Junction for around 40 minutes where those passengers might have got down from the train to avoid testing for COVID-19. Officials, however, could not explain where those 154 passengers disappeared even though they had booked their tickets for Ranchi.

The officials, however, said that those passengers might have got down on the stations even before reaching Ranchi Station to reach their respective destinations on time.

“The train reached here at 1:50 pm. The train which was to cover only one trip from Mumbai-Ranchi-Mumbai had 30 passengers on it. All those who reached here were screened properly and were allowed to go home only after giving samples,” said Ranchi Division CPRO Neeraj Kumar. All arrangement was done here for testing of every passenger reaching here, he added.

Meanwhile, fearing the chances of lockdown which might be put in place with COVID-19 cases going out of control in Maharashtra, most of the migrant workers are opting to return back to their native places to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020.

“If I had stayed there for some time more, I might have landed in trouble. Already, most of the business activities have been closed down; therefore, it is impossible to manage the living expenses in a city like Mumbai,” said a migrant Afroz, who works in Mumbai as a daily wage labourer. He did not wanted to facesimilar situation what he had to face last year due to sudden announcement of lockdown, he added.

Afroz told that that the train was fully packed when it departed from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, but he could also not explain where and why they got down even before reaching Ranchi Station.