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Mumbai, May 9 (IANS): The first three repatriation flights, including from London, Singapore and the Philippines, carrying Indians stranded there, will land at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Sunday morning, officials said Saturday.
This will kick off the weeklong repatriation program of a total of 16 flights, including six transit services, which will bring about 2,350 Indians from various countries, including the United States, Malaysia and Bangladesh, in addition to the United Kingdom, Singapore and the Philippines.
For this, CSMIA has made complete preparations from the moment they disembark from the plane until they leave the terminal building.
Two dedicated airbrushes will be deployed for them along with other infrastructure to screen passengers before they enter the immigration area, where 30 counters have been set up for quick clearance.
All passengers would be required to maintain a physical distance of 2 meters, to wear masks and gloves at all times.
CSMIA is also making special arrangements for food and beverages for passengers, disinfecting their luggage before loading it onto conveyor belts, providing sanitized carts and hand sanitizers at various points of contact at the airport.
Working with a third of the staff with all personal protective equipment, all arriving passengers will be escorted by CISF staff until they are released to state authorities.
The airport will also open some foreign currency sales points and mobile SIM cards so that passengers can install the ‘Aarogya Setu’ application on their phones before quarantining.
In the event that any passenger is identified as symptomatic, he / she would be immediately isolated in a separate area and then transferred in special ambulances from the airport to the designated isolation center.
The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said Thursday that it has reserved 3,343 rooms at 88 city hotels to accommodate Indians stranded here.
Around 1,900 Indians will be flown back to Mumbai on seven special flights to and from various destinations around the world, and incoming passengers will be sent to mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Flights to Mumbai will arrive from Bangladesh, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States, said BMC spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil.
As a precaution, all passengers would be sent to quarantine where they will undergo COVID-19 tests and, if they are positive, they will be admitted to hospitals for treatment.
Among the hotels reserved for them are the categories of 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars, in addition to serviced apartments and cheap hotels, he said.
For its part, the CSMIA has operated 51 outbound evacuation flights carrying 8,500 passengers between March 25 and May 9 to various global destinations, for foreign citizens stranded here during the ongoing blockade.
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