When a young Indian tourist arrived in Canada on March 7, among the objectives of the planned 12-day vacation was to fulfil a dream of visiting the Niagara Falls. Instead, nearly two months after she was originally scheduled to return to India, 32-year-old Smitha B from Bangalore remains stranded in the Greater Toronto Area.
Now staying at a hotel in Brampton courtesy the community organization Canada India Foundation (CIF), next door to a family of four in a similar quandary, Smitha said, “My dream place was Niagara, but I didn’t get to go anywhere. People like me ended up like this.” That is, stuck in Canada, as her return flight to India on March 19 was cancelled and she has struggled to survive in a foreign country and has been relying on the meals and the free hotel room provided by the CIF.
However, now Smitha is hopeful of finally returning to Bangalore and ease the anxiety of her worried parents, who live in Mysore. She has registered with the India’s High Commission in Ottawa for one of the first lot of repatriation flights from Canada that will be operated by Air India, beginning May 20.
Like her, there are many who desperately want to return to India but weren’t able to because of the lockdown and the absence of air connectivity. India’s High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria said nearly 5,000 people had registered on the mission’s website for the flights.
{{/usCountry}}Like her, there are many who desperately want to return to India but weren’t able to because of the lockdown and the absence of air connectivity. India’s High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria said nearly 5,000 people had registered on the mission’s website for the flights.
{{/usCountry}}Initially, there will be five flights from Canada: three from Toronto and two from Vancouver; and these will fly over 1400 Indians back home. Each ticket will cost over Rs 1.25 lakh. The flights will connect the travellers to a number of destinations in India: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Jaipur.
Bisaria said the flight arrangement was based on domicile of the passengers since travel between states in India was still problematic. The first list of passengers will have those with “compelling” reasons to return to India.
Depending on demand, the Indian government will commission more such flights and Bisaria has advised Indians stranded in Canada to keep registering with the High Commission, if they hadn’t so far, since there may be more “beyond” the five that will leave, beginning on May 20.
Canada’s High Commission in India has also informed its citizens in India that they can also buy tickets on these commercial flights to return to Canada, as Air India is accepting reservations for the outward destination.
Meanwhile, Smitha, waiting to return home, understands that on arrival she will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days. But, for her, only the journey matters at this time.