India, April 16 -- Western Railway (WR) authorities were left scrambling over the weekend to cater to thousands of migrant workers and daily-wage labourers who had congregated at Surat and Udhna railway stations looking to head home to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

This was after word had spread that WR was operating special trains to northern India from these railway stations, which attracted 15,000-17,000 workers from the industrial belts of Boisar in Maharashtra, and Tarapur and Surat in Gujarat.

While migrant workers heading home during the summer is common, the exodus has turned out to be larger this year due to a variety of reasons, including the general elections, wedding season, crop harvesting season, and a new payment rule involvin...