Missed India very much, says passenger upon touchdown at Lucknow airport

Haji Mohammed Sajid could not control his emotion as he came out of the Lucknow airport on Saturday evening after an Air India flight arrived here from Sharjah with 182 Indians on board as part of the government's 'Vande Bharat Mission'.

Kissing the floor of the airport, much to the surprise of the officials and mediapersons present there, a teary eyed Sajid said, "I was missing my parents and India very much."

"I thank the government for helping me reunite with my family after being stranded abroad for the past couple of months," said the Ayodhya resident, who worked as garment designer in the United Arab Emirates.

 

With just one coffee vending machine and a fruit cart, the airport wore a forlorn look, while the arrival board displayed the lone flight IX184 that arrived around 9.00 pm.

CISF jawans maintained a strict watch on the activities of the visitors as passengers started coming out of the airport at 10.30 pm. They were screened and sent to quarantine.

"This is the first flight to arrive in Lucknow during lockdown bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus crisis," Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport Director A K Sharma told PTI.

Lucknow DM Abhishek Prakash said, "The passengers who arrived today have been placed under paid quarantine in Lucknow."

"We have identified ESI Hospital, and any passenger found symptomatic will be admitted there. The rest will spend the next 14 days at the paid quarantine facilities," he told PTI.

The Indian government had on Monday announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7. It also said that Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indians stranded abroad due to the lockdown.

The country has imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country, grounding all international flights since mid-March.

Kerala tops the list of state-wise break-up of repatriation requests with 25,246, followed by 6,617 from Tamil Nadu and 4,341 from Maharashtra. A total of 3,715 people from Uttar Pradesh requested for evacuation, 3,320 from Rajasthan, 2,796 from Telangana and, 2,786 from Karnataka, sources said.