Over 1,100 passengers arriving on special trains to undergo RT-PCR tests

Over 1,100 passengers arriving on special trains to undergo RT-PCR tests

Keep them on railway premises until they are screened, CM urges Centre

13/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Migrant workers bound for Mizoram boarding a bus to MGR Central railway station in Chennai. B. VELANKANNI RAJ

As over 1,100 people are expected to arrive in Chennai on special trains, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday urged the Union Home and Railways Ministers to keep them in quarantine facilities on railway premises until all of them are screened for COVID-19.

Since there was a possibility of the infection spreading in the air-conditioned trains, the passengers would be allowed into Tamil Nadu only after undergoing RT-PCR tests. As there were practical difficulties in screening over 1,100 passengers in one go, they should be kept on railway premises until they are screened, the CM said.

Once testing is done, within a day or two, those with the infection and those without it will be sent to hospitals and home quarantine facilities, respectively, Mr. Palaniswami said in an official press release. The CM also insisted that regular train services to Chennai should not be resumed, since the city’s case count was on the rise.

Following the Railways’ announcement that it would operate Rajdhani Express trains — from New Delhi to Chennai and Chennai to New Delhi — from May 13, Mr. Palaniswami had, in a video-conference with PM Narendra Modi, insisted that train services should not be resumed till May 31. However, the Railways said the Rajdhani Express trains would be operated since reservations for May 14 and 16 had already commenced.

13,000 sent home

The CM said 13,000 migrant labourers had been sent back to their home States so far. He also announced a compensation of ₹3 lakh to Sakthivel, a police driver who was grievously injured in a melee involving migrant workers in Kudankulam on May 9, and ₹1 lakh to Anthony Jegatha, a police inspector who sustained minor injuries in the incident.