Nagpur, May 3 (PTI) A special Shramik train carrying nearly 1,000 stranded migrant labourers left Nagpur on Sunday evening for Lucknow, the Central Railway (CR) said.

Around 977 labourers stuck in Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Wardha and Gadchiroli districts in Maharashtra due to the lockdown were brought to Nagpur railway station in different buses after being screened, a statement issued by the CR said.

All the passengers were made to sit in the coaches as per the social distancing norms with the help of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), city police and the railway staff, it added.

Senior railway officials and Nagpur Guardian Minister Nitin Raut was present on the occasion. The train left for Lucknow around 7.30 pm, the statement said.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Raut, who is also the state Energy Minister, appreciated the Central government's move of starting the Shramik special trains for the stranded people.

In the letter, Raut requested that the Railway Ministry should bear the expenses of the transportation of passengers to their home states.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)