BENGALURU: Plumbers, delivery staffers, cooks and construction workers from Odisha were in a state of collective bliss as they got an opportunity to be included in the first list of 1,200 passengers selected by the State government to head to their hometown. Childlike joy from adults with huge smiles and waves and screams of ‘thank you sir’ rent the air across Platform One of Chikkabanavara when the train towards Bhubaneswar began its journey. Loud claps by passengers as well as railway officials and cops happened spontaneously.
For these passengers, it was a great escape from the poverty and unemployment they faced ever since the lockdown was declared on March 24. The absence of public transport ensured they had to stay put wherever they were. In a matter of 24 hours, all the 1,190 on board the train will reach their hometown as the train is a superfast one.
Happiest among them was Adarsh Mohanty, a delivery boy with Swiggy. “My wife is pregnant with our third child and is due to deliver this week. I am so lucky ... this train was suddenly announced and I got a chance to travel by it. If not for this train, I would have tried a long bike ride as I was desperate to leave,” he said.
Sudhir Kumar Das, a cook, who hails from Bhadrak village, was the first passenger allowed to enter the station. “It is terrible to sit here doing nothing while my wife and kids are in the village. I was running out of rations too,” he said. However, he insisted he would return to Bengaluru as soon as things got better.
While the state government has ensured food during the trip through an NGO, Brittania was offering all biscuits, said an official.