Six flights from US, UK and Gulf to land at Gaya from Monday

The Gaya International airport will receive at least six flights during the second phase of Vande Bharat mission between May 18 and May 24.

The Gaya International airport will receive at least six flights during the second phase of Vande Bharat mission between May 18 and May 24.

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According to official sources in the Bihar home department, only six flights have so far been scheduled to land at the Gaya airport. The first flight, AI-0112, is likely to arrive on Monday evening. Each flight will carry less than 200 passengers. If a person shows Covid-19 symptoms during the journey, he will immediately be separated from others and made to leave the flight from the back door when it lands in Gaya.

A total of 8,000 people from Bihar stranded in the UK, USA and the Middle East countries are to be brought back in different phases.

A mock drill for the evacuation of symptomatic patients from a flight and the terminal building was conducted at the airport on Saturday.

The Gaya district administration has also made arrangements for paid quarantine centres in Bodh Gaya. According to Gaya SSP Rajiv Kumar Mishra, more than 5000 beds have been earmarked at 161 hotels and 56 monasteries for paid quarantine for a period of 14 days. He said hotel rooms have been divided into three categories – super deluxe, deluxe and non-AC, depending on the available facilities. Super deluxe rooms will cost Rs 1,600, deluxe rooms Rs 1,000 and non-AC rooms Rs 800 per day.

A district administration official said that those put under quarantine would pay Rs 60 for breakfast, Rs 100 for vegetarian food while Rs 140 for non-veg food. Different categories of ‘thali’ options would also be there for the returnees.

Air-conditioned guest house rooms will be available at Rs 800 per day and non-AC rooms in guest houses at Rs 600 per day. The returnees will have the option to choose any of the five categories of accommodation.

Gaya DM Abhishek Kumar Singh said the friends and relatives of the returnees have been cautioned against any attempt to meet their near and dear ones either at the time of arrival or anytime thereafter during their mandatory stay at the quarantine centres. From the airport, all the returnees would be taken directly to the quarantine centres in Bodh Gaya

Asangba Chuba, Magadh divisional commissioner, said since Gaya airport handles international flights the government decided to make it the landing point for the special flights coming from abroad.

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote a letter to Bihar government asking it to arrange facilities for the mandatory institutional quarantine of stranded Indian nationals being brought back to the country. The letter also said that standard operating procedure (SoP) for the movement of stranded nationals has already been notified on May 5 and it has to be strictly followed.