As railways resume train services, passengers eager to get home, arrive ahead of schedule; some don PPE suits to avoid infection

Mumbai:  A mix of eagerness, anxiety and joy was visible at railway stations as the passengers queued up way ahead of schedule at their boarding stations on Tuesday following the partial resumption of railway services.  While the passengers in Mumbai expressed satisfaction with the government’s decision to allow the plying of passenger trains , they also pointed out the hardships they had to face away from their near and dear ones for close to two months due to the lockdown. Not just satisfied with the usage of masks, some passengers were also seen wearing PPE kits for extra safety. “I thank the government for helping us, I have to reach Gurgaon to be with my daughter who is pregnant. I am wearing a PPE kit as I do not want to endanger my daughter and the child, I do not want to be a problem for them when I return,” Mamta Khatri, a passenger told ANI. Deepak Kumar, another passenger, said, “I had come here to visit my relatives but was stuck due to lockdown. It is great that I will finally be able to get back to my family after two months.” Follow Latest Updates on Coronavirus Outbreak Passengers have also begun to arrive to board a special train to New Delhi from Bengaluru today evening Similar stories emerged when ANI talked to passengers at the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna railway station in Bengaluru, where a large number of students were among those who were eager to return to their native places. “It has been five months that I have been to my native place in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. It is good that the train services have resumed now, especially for the migrant workers who have been stranded here without job or food,” Tejasvi, a student said. Anjali, another student who had arrived in Bengaluru a few days before 24 March for her college exams, said that she had been stuck for the past two months. “I had come for college examinations here from my home in Uttar Pradesh but got stuck due to the lockdown in Bengaluru. I am very happy that finally, I got a ticket to reach home,” she said. The Indian Railways is partially resuming its passenger train operations from Tuesday after over one and a half months of stoppage owing to the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. The Railways had continued to run freight trains during the lockdown period to ensure that the supply of goods and commodities around the country. Shramik special trains to enable the return of stranded migrant workers to their native states had been started in the first week of May.