NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, MAY 9
As many as 359 Tamils stranded in UAE arrived here early from Dubai in two Air India flights as part of the government’s Vande Bharat Mission to bring home Indian nationals stranded in various countries.
Glad to welcome returning Indians frm Dubai.Two AI Express flights hv arrived in Chennai tonight carrying 356 people.
Thank @airindiain, @MOCA_GOI, Bureau of Immigration& Tamil Nadu Govt for support&cooperation.
Great work by Team @cgidubai led by CG Vipul#VandeBharatMission
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrSJaishankar) May 8, 2020
Among the passengers was a Madurai based woman whose husband died in Dubai. The body was also brought in the aircraft and she headed to the southern temple town on road from here with her spouse’s body.
While the first flight saw arrival of 182 people -151 men, 28 women and 3 children- there were 177 people in the second aircraft (138 men and 39 women) and the flights arrived in the wee hours of today, airport officials and Greater Chennai Corporation said.
The stranded people hail from Tamil Nadu and they were working in the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday night, a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia arrived at Tiruchirappalli airport with about 200 passengers.
On their arrival, nasal and throat swab samples were taken for coronavirus testing at the specially set up COVID-19 kiosks at the airport.
Authorities deputed several teams of health workers attired in protective suits to screen and take samples from the returnees.
While one group of people was lodged in the premises of an educational institution in suburban Melakottayur, two other groups of men and women got accommodated in two hotels here at Periyamet and Ekkaduthangal in Chennai respectively.
They would be in their respective places of stay for about 14 days, the authorities said.
