Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today said that her government will bear the entire cost of ferrying migrant workers to Bengal in special trains. “Saluting the toil faced by our migrant brethren, I am pleased to announce the decision of GoWB to bear the entire cost of movement for our migrant workers by special trains from other states to West Bengal. No migrant will be charged. Letter to Rly Board attached,” Banerjee tweeted.

In a letter to Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav, Banerjee wrote that the state govt will bear the entire expenses of the workers boarding Shramik Special trains destined for Bengal. State home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said that a database comprising 17 lakh stranded people has been prepared and the state government is coordinating with respective states for arranging facilities of medical examination, infrastructure and transportation for the workers.

“The travel and other cost of the stranded workers would be borne by the state government,” he said. A total of 105 trains included three from Andhra Pradesh, six from Delhi, five from Gujarat, six from Haryana, one from Himachal Pradesh, one from Jammu and Kashmir, five from Karnataka, 28 from Kerala, one from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Maharashtra, two from Purulia, six from Rajasthan, 10 from Tamil Nadu, five from Telangana, seven from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand.

Seven trains have already reached the state, two arrived today and one is scheduled tomorrow. Along with this, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha is in regular communication with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for operating flight services for people to return to Bengal from other countries. On 18 May, the first flight would reach Kolkata airport with 160 passengers from Bangladesh, Bandopadhyay said.

“All foreign returnees will have to undergo a mandatory 14 days quarantine. We have provided MEA a list of hotels where such people can stay at their own cost during the quarantine period or can put up at our government quarantine centres free of cost,” said Bandopadhyay. Bengal recorded 115 new Corona positive cases in the last 24 hours taking the total Covid-19 cases to 2,576. Seven persons died due to Corona since yesterday.