100-Odd Odisha Workers Flown To Ahmedabad For Metro Rail Project

Bhubaneswar: Skilled workers from Odisha have been flown to Ahmedabad to work on the underground section of the metro rail project in Gujarat’s mega city.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is constructing part of the project, has flown back 100-odd Odia workers, some of whom are “tunnelling experts”. The batch is being quarantined at Labour Colony in Mirzapur, Ahmedabad.

The company will be bringing back 200 more workers from Odisha by the second week of July.

The workers have reportedly gone back to Gujarat as there is barely any work in their home state. Also, a skilled worker gets Rs 30,000 per month in addition to food and stay there, according to a report in The New Indian Express.

Gujarat accounts for 27.09 per cent of migrants from Odisha who returned after lockdown. This is the highest among returnees from other states.

Out of 5.17 lakh migrants who returned, 1.4 lakh came from Gujarat alone. About 1.28 lakh came back by trains while 11K returned by road.

L&T has paid for their the flight tickets.

L&T was supposed to complete the underground sections by April 2020. The project has been delayed because of COVID-19 lockdown.