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ER’S SAFETY & MAINTENANCE WORK DURING LOCK DOWN

Kolkata, June 19, 2020:

ER has taken all out effort to undertake safety and maintenance works o­n priority during lock down period also. Taking the advantage of lock down, Engineering and  Bridge  team of ER’s  Asansol Division  completed launching of 3 nos of 21.5 m girder of Foot Overbridge (FOB) at TELWA station  in Sitarampur -Jhajha section by using Road Crane. Traffic cum Power Block was taken for the period from 14:45 hrs to 17:00 hrs o­n 19.6.2020, during Covid-19 lockdown – 5, without affecting coaching train punctuality. Sitarampur-Jhajha section is a busy section and in normal time Traffic & Power Block for such long time without affecting punctuality was not feasible.

प्रेस विज्ञप्ति/ Press Release No. 143  Dt: 17.06.2020

SWR’S 240 SHRAMIK SPECIAL TRAINS CARRIES 3.50 LAKH PASSENGERS BACK HOME

Starting with the first Shramik Special Train being rolled out from the Zone o­n 3^rdMay 2020, South Western Railway has run 240 Shramik special trains carrying 3.50 lakh migrant workers to their native destinations. While, the Zone transported first o­ne lakh passengers in 13 days, the next o­ne lakh passengers were transported in just 6 days.  Shramik specials were run every day from 3^rd May 2020 till date except for two days o­n 6^th and 7^th May 2020.

Two trains are scheduled to leave from Bengaluru to Guwahati latter tonight. SWR is going all out to arrange for trains as per the demand of the state Govt. to all parts of country so that migrant workers can reach their hometowns. Shramik Special trains have been run from Karnataka to 17 states in the country.  The maximum number of trains were run towards Bihar i.e. 77 trains carrying 1.13 lakh passenger followed by 52 trains to Uttar Pradesh carrying 75,248 passengers.

SWR has run Shramik Specials from Bengaluru (KSR Bengaluru, Bengaluru Cant., Chikbanawar, Malur) Mysuru (Ashokapuram, Kabakaputtur, Hassan) Hubballi, Hubballi (Hosapete, Bellari, Koppal) and from Hosur in Tamil Nadu. Details of trains run so far are as below;

Bengaluru Division has run 207 Shramik Specials so far carrying 3.02 lakh passengers. Hubballi Division has run 21 Shramik Special carrying 30,580 passengers and Mysuru Division has run 12 Shramik Specials ferrying 16,974 passengers.

SWR is transporting passengers to their destination as per the demand of State Government with proper protocol and the receiving State Government is ready to accept them. These special trains are being run from point to point with no stoppages en-route. State Government is arranging to bring passengers of Shramik Special trains to the stations through BMTC Buses as per the protocol.   

Care is being taken to ensure social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitizing of hands and making regular announcement to caution the passengers for prevention and spread of Covid-19 virus before departure from stations. Hand Sanitizer along with liquid soap has been provided in all coaches to protect against spread of Covid-19 Virus.  Railway is also ensuring complete sanitization of all coaches before boarding of special train by the passengers.

Special Trains are departing the Stations o­nly after all the passengers are medically examined by Government of Karnataka and issued medical certificate.  Thermal screening is again done by Railway Medical Teams at the stations.  None of the passengers was detected with high temperature.   The Railway Protection Force (RPF) team is escorting the trains and ensuring social distancing. Details of passengers, coach-wise with address and mobile Nos. have been obtained.  Details have been digitalized and stored for contact tracing in future, if required.

                                                                                           Chief Public Relations Officer

                                                                              South Western Railway, Hubballi