PATNA: It was an emotional homecoming for many as over a thousand migrants arrived in Bihar’s Danapur on the Shramik Special train on Saturday. “This feels like a new beginning of our lives. I’d rather die at home then go back now,” said Rohan Kumar (name changed) of Vaishali district. As many as 1, 187 migrants from 28 districts of Bihar boarded the Shramik Special train at Jaipur at 10 pm on Friday.
After de-boarding, the migrants were sent to the nearby railway stadium where each of them underwent thermal screening.
“We thank God for letting us come back home,” said a woman as she carried her infant to the screening site. The 22-coach train reached the Danapur railway station around 2 pm, where the migrants were welcomed by state health minister Mangal Pandey, officials of the East Central Railway and Patna district administration.
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That train ran point-to-point non-stop and the passengers were made sit to follow social distancing. Speaking to the media, Patna District Magistrate Kumar Ravi said that after their medical tests, all the migrants would be sent to the quarantine centres for 21 days at their native districts by buses.
Around 100 buses have been stationed at the Danapur railway station to send these people to their home districts, he added. The buses will ply with a half of their seating capacity to maintain social distancing.
The district administration has also summoned 50 jawans of Indian Army to assist the police in safely de-training the migrants.
Official sources said that the highest number of 175 migrants belong to Rohtas district followed by Kishanganj, Muzaffarpur, Saran, Aurangabad, Gopalganj. Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had recently estimated that 27 lakh migrants from Bihar are stranded in different parts of the country.