2 Vande Bharat flights land in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: An air of excitement pervaded Visakhapatnam airport when two Vande Bharat flights landed here on Tuesday, bringing back over 314 people stranded in Philippines and Abu Dhabi.

While 148 passengers arrived in the port city from Philippines, 166 passengers landed in the second flight from Abu Dhabi. Along with the passengers from different parts of North Andhra, travellers from East Godavari, West Godavari and Vijayawada also reached the port city by Vande Bharat flights.

Passengers who arrived here were screened for coronavirus at the airport. Later, they were sent for a 14-day quarantine through special buses.

The district administration arranged 27 hotels of various categories to facilitate paid quarantine for the foreign returnees.

About 1,000 rooms have been arranged in hotels that are of five-star, four-star and three-star categories apart from the budget hotels. The price of each varies from Rs 35,000 to Rs 15,000, depending on the star category of the accommodation provided.

Four flights from various destinations will land in Visakhapatnam from Tuesday to May 21 as a part of the 'Vande Bharat' scheme to bring back the Indian nationals stranded in foreign destinations due to the ongoing lockdown.

Elaborating on the quarantine facilities, Andhra Medical College principal and district Covid-19 control committee member P V Sudhakar said, "The district administration has arranged paid and unpaid quarantine facilities for the foreign returnees and they can avail the facility depending on their affordability. From the time they enter the city till they complete their quarantine period, they will be monitored by medical teams and Covid tests will be conducted for them at regular intervals."

Apart from flights from Philippines and Abu Dhabi that arrived on Tuesday, the flights will also land from Doha and Kuala Lumpur in the coming days, according to the airport officials.