Malappuram: The special Shramik train (06420) carrying migrant workers from Kerala that departed on Tuesday will arrive in Nagaland on Saturday. As the train came to a halt at the Dimapur station, the Indian Railways completed a milestone in history. It was the longest train service ever.
The Shramik train, that started at 2.35 pm on Tuesday from Thiruvananthapuram carrying Nagaland natives, covered 4,322 km in 86 hours, passing through 8 states in 4 days and reached 5.30 am at Dimapur on Saturday.
966 labourers stranded in four south Indian states have been evacuated on this train. 334 labourers boarded the train from Thiruvananthapuram while 117 boarded from Ernakulam and 44 from Palakkad. 264 boarded from Tamil Nadu, 203 from Telangana and 4 from Andhra Pradesh. The train had seven stops covering four states.
The special train was arranged by Nagaland government in cooperation with Kerala government. The Nagaland government had paid Rs 17.42 lakh to the Indian Railways for travel expense. Food and refreshments were provided free of cost.
Till date, the longest train service was the Vivek Express from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Dibrugarh in Assam. It had travelled 4,282 km in 72 hours. The Shramik train ran 40 km extra to surpass the record. The train passed through Secunderabad to pick 203 persons resulting in more kilometres.
