Around 200 Indian crew stranded onboard cruise liner Costa Smeralda since the past 140 days are all set to return to the country on Tuesday morning, after the Indian High Commission approved the request to charter a flight from Rome.
Fifteen of the crew members are from Vasai taluka. Nallasopara legislator KshitijThakur earlier wrote to external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on 20 June (a copy of the letter is with Hindustan Times) to make arrangements for the crew to fly back to India.
“Some of the crew members stranded on the ship are from my constituency and hence I appealed to the Centre to help them,” said Thakur.
The ship was anchored at Marseille,France, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the members contacted a man, Rosley Gonsalves, who worked on another cruise and returned to Vasai in January. Gonsalves then informed Thakur about the crew.
“An arrangement is being made under the Vande Mataram Mission to bring them home. I want to thank CM Uddhav Thackeray who kept in touch with the external affairs ministry over the issue,” said Gonsalves.