First repatriation flight with 151 people from Dubai lands in Odisha

A special Air India flight from Dubai carrying the first batch of 151 stranded Odia migrants landed in Bhubaneswar on Thursday night, an official said.

The passengers were received at the Biju Patnaik International Airport by senior officials and their health screening was conducted there.

Passengers hailing from Khurda, Cuttack, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts would leave by bus from the airport, the official said.

Those from faraway districts such as Bargarh, Balasore and Nayagarh will be accommodated in institutional quarantine centres in Bhubaneswar, he said.

Another repatriation flight from Dubai is scheduled to reach here on May 19, while a flight from Kuala Lumpur is expected to land in Bhubaneswar on the next day, an official said.

"On May 28, a flight from Chicago in the USA is scheduled to land in Delhi. From there, another flight will bring the passengers here," the official said.

Meanwhile, more than one lakh Odias stranded in different states due to the nationwide lockdown since the midnight of March 24 have returned to the state after the Centre allowed their movement by bus, train and other vehicles, he said.

Since May 3, as many as 1,00,030 Odias -- migrant workers, students, pilgrims, patients, professionals and others -- have reached the state, Odisha government's COVID-19 spokesperson Subroto Bagchi said.

"A total of 11,487 people have returned to the state on Thursday," Bagchi said during a daily briefing here.

Official sources said the state government has facilitated the movement of 9,287 "guest workers", migrant labourers from elsewhere stranded in Odisha, for their journey home.

The guest workers who have returned so far primarily hailed from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.