With evacuation of 2470 more stranded passengers the total number of J&K residents evacuated through Lakhanpur by the government, so far till May 17, has reached the figure 54866. Besides, 11,456 stranded passengers have reached through COVID special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations.Meanwhile, the Jammu district administration today received the 4th train carrying 898 passengers of various districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. So far, four trains have reached Jammu with a total of 3768 stranded passengers belonging to different districts.Deputy Commissioner, Sushma Chauhan, who is supervising the whole process of boarding and de-boarding of returnees at Jammu Railway station, informed that 100 per cent sampling of returnees has been done at the kiosks established by the district administration at the station. Besides, an elaborate transport system has been put in place to take the passengers to their native districts for adminstrative quarantine amidst strict adherence to the guidelines issued by MHA and MoFHW regarding COVID-19, she added.According to an official data, the 8th COVID special train has reached Udhampur railway station carrying 1315 J&K stranded residents.
At Udhampur, the trains are being received by Deputy Commissioner, Piyush Singhla, who had a brief interaction with the passengers about their journey and facilities. He informed that the district administration Udhampur has made elaborate arrangements for reception and departure of these passengers to their homes in different districts of J&K. “Corona Warriors are facilitating the returnees to reach their homes”, he added.DC informed that the district authorities are ensuring strict adherence to the guidelines issued by Ministries of Home Affairs and Health & Family Welfare regarding COVID-19 during the boarding and de-boarding process in the district. It is being ensured that the passengers observe social distancing and wear masks.As per the official communiqué, of 54866 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur till May 17, 2020 (morning) included 11975 from Punjab; 19002 from Himachal Pardesh, 5148 from Dehli, 1064 from Gujrat, 1916 from Rajasthan, 3189 from Haryana, 106 from Chattisgarh, 2883 from Uttarakhand, 388 from Maharashtra, 3399 from Uttar Pradesh, 42 from Odhisa, 35 from Assam and 832 from Madhya Pradesh, 88 from Dehradun, 847 from Chandigarh, 500 from Telengana, 7 from Karnatka, 32 from Chennai, 225 from Bihar, 14 from West Bengal, 26 from Jharkhand and 3148 from other states and UTs.