Special train leaves with guest workers

Coimbatore: The Salem division of the Southern Railway operated a special train from Tirupur on Wednesday to transport guest workers to Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The 34th special train, bound for Howrah in West Bengal, was operated after a gap of one month.
Guest workers from 15 districts, including Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Madurai and Dindigul, had reached the Tirupur railway station on Wednesday.“The train departed with 1,150 passengers, including 259 from Tirupur. It will stop at Chennai to board another 300 passengers,” said a railway official. “The passengers are natives of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The train will also stop in Jharkhand. The workers were chosen based on the official data of workers willing to return to their native states.”
District administrations supplied the workers with food packets, water bottles and soaps before they boarded the train. They were also screened for Covid-19 symptoms at the railway station.
Over 52,000 guest workers from Tirupur had returned to Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand in the special trains operated from May 10.