A special non-stop train left Telangana for Jharkhand early Friday morning on request of the Telangana government and as per the directions of the Ministry of Railways, to transport stranded migrant labourers amid the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Coronavirus.

The train carrying 1,200 migrant workers started from Lingampalli in Hyderabad at 5 am for Hatia in Jharkhand. The train will reach Hatia around 11 pm on Friday.

According to railway officials, the special train operated as a “one-off service”.

This is the first such train service to have taken place after the lockdown to move stranded migrants.

According to officials in Jharkhand, the state government has made adequate arrangements for the testing and quarantine of the migrants returning to the state from the special non-stop train.

The railways have suspended the passenger, mail and express train services in a bid to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Earlier today, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted to confirm the centre had accepted his request to run a special train to return people to the state, saying: “The central government accepted our demand to bring back workers. We immediately started work to bring them back safely”.

“Just as students studying in other states are important to us, similarly migrant workers from the state are equally important. Security of each Jharkhand is your government’s priority,” he added.

A railway official told news agency ANI that train services can be planned only as per the directions of the Ministry of Railways and on request from originating and destination states.

The move to transport migrants to their native place came two days after the Centre on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to students, migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists and others to return to their destination, 36 days after the lockdown was implemented. Th Government issued an order to all the States and Union Territories to facilitate Inter-State movement of stranded people including migrant labourers in the country.

While allowing the same, the Ministry of Home Affairs had stated that “buses shall be used for transport of a group of persons, of course, after proper sanitization and maintaining social distancing norms in seating”.

Many state governments had proposed running special trains to transport stranded people and runing long-distance buses were not feasible.

States like Punjab and Kerala had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange point-to-point special trains for their transport.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said that Ludhiana alone had over 700,000 migrant labourers and the whole of Punjab, over a million and the movement of such a large number of people would be possible only through trains, with proper screening at the time of departure.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also sought special non-stop trains for the inter-state movement of migrants. He also said that transporting nearly 3.6 lakh migrant labourers, as per the Centre’s order, by buses is “impractical”.

Meanwhile, another special train carrying 1200 people will reportedly depart tonight from Kerala’s Kochi to Odisha’s Bhubaneswar.

According to Additional Chief Secretary, Dr Vishwas Mehta, “Five more trains are being allowed but their destinations are yet to be decided.”