Jammu, May 26: Jammu and Kashmir government, under its initiative of facilitating safe and secure return of stranded passengers stuck outside the UT due to COVID lockdown, has evacuated about 94,621 JK residents via Lakhanpur and through a network of special trains and buses till date amid observance of all necessary Standard Operating Procedures regarding the pandemic.
The concerned district administrations are pro-actively working under a well knit strategy to ensure that all returnees go through the medical screening for the Virus followed by 14-day quarantine to contain the spread of this deadly disease.
As per the official data received in this regard, the administrations of Jammu and Kashmir districts have received 33 COVID special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with about 26, 797 stranded passengers while about 67172 persons have been evacuated by the government through Lakhanpur till date.
Meanwhile, about 652 passengers including students have already reached at Srinagar International Airport under Vande Bharat Mission through 4 COVID special flights.
Therefore, a total of about 94,621 J&K residents stranded outside UT have been brought back to the UT by the Jammu and Kashmir government by 33 COVID special trains, flights besides scores of buses through Lakhanpur after strictly observing all necessary preventive measures regarding the Virus.
As per the detailed break up about the figures, about 478 stranded passengers have entered through Lakhanpur from May 25 to May 26 morning while 763 passengers have reached today in the 13th Delhi COVID special train at Jammu. So far, 13 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 11,157 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,640 passengers have reached Udhampur in 20 special trains, so far.
As per the official communiqué, of 67,172 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur till May 24, 2020 (morning) included 15997 from Punjab; 20546 from Himachal Pardesh, 21 from Andhra Pardesh, 6567 from Delhi, 1359 from Gujrat, 2760 from Rajasthan, 3886 from Haryana, 150 from Chattisgarh, 3378 from Uttarakhand, 1031 from Maharashtra, 4318 from Uttar Pradesh, 63 from Odisha, 267 from Assam and 991 from Madhya Pradesh, 88 from Dehradun, 1130 from Chandigarh, 684 from Telengana, 106 from Karnataka, 19 from Tamilnadu, 52 from Chennai, 303 from Bihar, 155 from West Bengal, 27 from Jharkhand, 3 from Nepal and 3271 from other states and UTs.
Meanwhile, three Shramik special trains carrying about 5071 Bihar bound migrant workers have left from Katra today for various districts of Bihar thus taking the total number of outbound migrant workers who have been sent back to their home states and UTs through Shramik special trains from Katra since 19th of May 2020, to 21686 till date.
Principal Secretary PDD, Rohit Kansal; Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi and Chief Electoral Officer, Hirdesh Kumar, who are the Nodal Officers for management of return of stranded people at Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua respectively, are personally monitoring the facilities being extended to the passengers during their de-boarding and movement to their home districts.