Special flights carrying 1,153 Gujarat residents to arrive during May 10-13

Five special flights carrying

1,153 residents of Gujarat, who have been stranded in various countries due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown in India, will land in Ahmedabad between May 10 and May 13, a senior official said on Saturday.

They will be flown from Singapore, the Philippines, the USA, UK and Kuwait, he said.

The state government has made required arrangements for thermal screening, health check-up and institutional quarantine for the passengers, mainly comprising students, said Ashwani Kumar, Secretary to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

The special flights are being operated by the Central government as part of massive operations launched by it to evacuate stranded Indians from air and sea.

The first flight carrying 243 passengers from Singapore will land on May 10, followed by a flight from Philippines with 243 passengers on the midnight of May 12. A flight from the USA with 147 passengers will land on the early morning of May 12, he said.

A flight carrying 370 passengers from the UK will land at 1:45 am on May 13 and that from Kuwait with 149 passengers will land on the night of May 13, Kumar told reporters.

Operations of commercial flights have been suspended since Indian imposed a lockdown on March 25, which was subsequently extended till May 17, to curb the spread of novel coronavirus, which is believed to have originated from Wuhan in China.