On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has allowed the movement stranded migrant workers, tourists, students and other persons by special trains.
According to the notice issued by MHA, the Ministry of Railways (MoR) will designate nodal officers for coordinating with States/UTs for the movement of the stranded migrant workers, tourists, students etc.
The MoR will be issuing a seperate and detailed guidelines for the sale of tickets, social distancing and other safety measures to be observed on train stations and within the trains, read the notice.
Meanwhile, the first special train from Kerala carrying 1,200 migrant workers to Bhubaneswar in Odisha will leave from the Aluva railway station on Friday evening, state Minister V S Sunil Kumar said.
The migrant workers from Odisha accommodated in camps in Ernakulam District since the COVID-19 lockdown will be brought to the station in state-run corporation buses as per the protocol announced by the government, he said.
Official sources said the train was scheduled for 6 pm departure.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the MHA allowed the interstate travel of migrant workers, tourists, students etc. stranded at various places in the country amidst the lockdown enforced due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The MHA in its notification had said that all States/ UTS should designate nodal authorities and develop standard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons.
For the transport, the Ministry had said that buses shall be used.
Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, 1993 positive cases have been reported and the total number of positive cases is now 35,043, said Lav Agrawal, Joint Secy, Health Ministry.
