Bengaluru received the first Shramik special train that brought 182 passengers on Sunday while the special passenger train brought another 383 stranded persons. On the same day more than 15,000 people left Karnataka in Shramik trains to various states.
The Shramik Special train from Delhi-Hubballi-Kalaburagi - Bengaluru Shramik arrived at Yeshwantpur and all its 182 passengers were shifted to institutional quarantine. The train carried nearly 900 passengers from Delhi most of whom got down at Hubballi and Kalaburagi.
The New Delhi-KSR Bengaluru Special train arrived at KSR Bengaluru station at 6.48 am. With passengers communicated about the mandatory quarantine rules, there was no confusion on the platforms.
Kavana Gowda J, an IAS aspirant who arrived from Delhi in one of the trains, said that the railway officials conducted the operations in an organised way. "However, the entire procedure of enrolling for the inter-state travel was a tedious one. Though rules were notified on April 30, it is sad that we had to wait for so many days for confirmation of the journey. Better coordination is needed between the states to ensure people do not suffer unnecessarily," she said.
12 Shramik trains
Meanwhile, the South Western Railway ran as many as 12 Shramik Special trains on Sunday, which carried more than 15000 migrnat workers and other persons stranded in Karnataka to their home towns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states.
To Uttar Pradesh, three trains left from Hubballi, Hospet and Ballari. Seven trains left Bengaluru to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir. Two trains were operated from Mysuru to Gorakhpur and Katihar in Bihar.