Hundreds of migrant labourers gathered on Pune-Bengaluru Highway in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district on Thursday, demanding special trains to their hometowns in the northern states, police said.

Labourers from Shiroli MIDC, who were stranded since the COVID-19 lockdown was enforced, gathered on the highway to voice their demands, the official said.

As the crowd swelled in the area, the police were deployed to convince the protesting labourers to clear out and subsequently the district collector and police superintendent also reached the spot, he said.

The authorities were trying to convince the migrants that they will be allowed to return to their home states depending on the availability of trains, he added.

Labourers, who were predominantly from Uttar Pradesh, said they wished to head to their hometowns, as they had left their living quarters and did not have work or means to survive the lockdown, the official said. 

This is not the first time of such gathering. In April, migrant workers in Mumbai's Bandra region also gathered in huge numbers demanding for trains to take them home. Bandra Police filed a first information report (FIR) against 700 unidentified persons after the incident