Several states have expressed their reservation to the Indian Railways’ plan to start 100 pairs of passenger trains from June 1, fearing that this may trigger an increase in COVID-19 cases.
The states including West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Odisha requested the Centre to put on hold the regular passenger trains at least for another month.
While saying that they have no problem with operating Shramik Special trains to ferry stranded migrant workers, the states have said that they were not in favour of resuming partial passenger train services.
They are projecting the fact that the arrival of a large number of migrant workers has caused a spike in Covid-19 cases in several states. Since a large number of migrants are already in quarantine centres, testing and treating positive cases is a daunting challenge to the states.
The states have conveyed to the Centre that in such a situation, regular train services would put extra pressure on the health systems.