Special plane brings 132 stranded Indians to Bihar from Muscat

A special flight carrying 132 stranded Indians from Muscat landed at Gaya airport in Bihar on Sunday, officials said.

None of the passengers exhibited symptoms of coronavirus during screening and medical examination, they said.

Of the 132 returnees, 116 are from Bihar and 16 from Jharkhand, Gaya airport director Dilip Kumar said.

After completion of formalities like depositing returnees' passports at the immigration counters by the district administration, the residents of Bihar were sent to various hotels in Bodh Gaya for 14 days quarantine, the officials said.

Those from Jharkhand were sent to the state in a vehicle dispatched by the Jharkhand government, they added.

Magadh Divisional Commissioner Asangba Chuba Ao, Gaya District Magistrate Abhishek Singh, SSP Rajiv Mishra and the airport director welcomed the returnees on their arrival here with kits containing sanitiser and soaps.

On May 18, a chartered plane had landed at Gaya airport with 41 Indians stranded in London.

Around 300 people from Myanmar stranded in different parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh due to the coronavirus lockdown had left for their country in a chartered flight on April 22.

On April 24, 171 Buddhist monks and tourists returned to Thailand in a chartered flight from Gaya. They had come to India to visit the Buddhist circuit of Gaya-Rajgir-Kushinagar-Varanasi-Vaishali.