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10 flights to bring NRIs back to Punjab, Chandigarh
Arriving from May 13 to May 22, eight flights will land at Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport in Amritsar, and two at Chandigarh International Airport
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) stuck in various countries will be brought back to their native districts in Punjab and Chandigarh via 10 flights, arriving from May 13 to May 22. Of these, eight flights will land at Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport in Amritsar, and two at Chandigarh International Airport.
Punjab NRI affairs secretary Rahul Bhandari said, as per Ministry of External Affairs, around 20,000 NRIs have requested to come back to Punjab from various countries, he said.
As per the weblink, http://www.covidhelp.punjab.gov.in, requests have been received from all 22 districts of Punjab and a total of around 1,700 NRIs have applied for it. Hoshiarpur tops the districts in the state with 621 requests, followed by 540 requests from Ludhiana and 535 from Amritsar. Most of the NRIs are from USA, Canada and UAE.
Meanwhile, Chandigarh International Airport chief executive officer Ajay Bhardwaj said of the two flights to land at the airport, one will be from Ukraine and the other from USA.
QUARANTINE FOR RETURNEES
Meanwhile, Mohali deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan said the district administration was fully prepared to receive NRIs who will land at the Chandigarh airport. “We have been told that the list of NRIs will be released 24 hours before the flight is scheduled to depart from the said country. We are expecting NRIs from Canada, USA, UK, Singapore and Australia either directly or via Delhi,” Dayalan said.
Dr Manjit Singh, civil surgeon of Mohali said arrangements for paid institutional quarantine for the returnees in hotels and other places have been made as per Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) guidelines and each passenger, before boarding, has filled up an undertaking to abide by the same.
In Mohali, the residents coming from other states, Dayalan said, will be de-boarded from their buses at a common central location, which, as of now, has been identified as Palm Banquets in Zirakpur. Thereafter, they will be sent back to their respective homes, where they will stay strictly home quarantined, under surveillance. However, high-risk travellers, if any, will be put in government quarantine facilities, the DC said.
