Chhatrapur: As many as 1,200 Odiaexpats who were stranded in Kerala owing to the nationwide lockdown reached at 5.58 am Monday Jagannathpur station in Ganjam district by special Shramik Special train.
From the 1,200 expats, 1,188 are from Ganjam district. The rest passengers belong to Kendrapara, Cuttack, Kandhamal, Khordha, Jajpur, Balangir, Puri, Nayagarh, Gajapati, Keonjhar, Rayagada, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Jagatsinghpur and Kalahandi districts.
Ganjam District Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange, SP Brijesh Kumar Rai and DRDA PD Siddharth Shankar Swain welcomed the expats at the station.
The officials, with the help of a medical team, have started thermal screening, registration and quarantine stamping of the expats at a temporary camp established outside the station.
Following the health screening, the returnees will be shifted to quarantine centres of their respective panchayats. The officials said that migrant workers will be allowed to return to their respective homes only after 14 days and only if they test negative for Covid-19.
Over 35 buses and one SUVs were deployed to take the returnees to their respective quarantine centres.
However, another train from Bangalore carrying around 1200 stranded migrants arrived at Khurda Road railway station at 9.12 am Monday.
It is reported, two more trains from Surat are scheduled to reach Jagannathpur railway station at 1 pm and 4 pm Monday.
Notably, a non-stop ferrying train carrying 1150 persons of different districts of the state had reached Odisha Sunday morning.
PNN