india

Updated: Apr 19, 2020 12:00 IST

As many as 125 Bahrain nationals stranded in Pune due to the Covid-19 outbreak were evacuated from Lohegaon airport on Saturday. A special flight of Gulf Air evacuated 125 Bahrain nationals from and flew them to Chennai to take others on board, said a senior official of the Pune International Airport.

One passenger with high temperature could not get on the plane and was referred to a city-based hospital for further tests.

According to Kuldeep Singh, Airport Director, Pune, arrangements were made with limited areas of the airport being open for the passengers’ movement to ensure focused cleaning. “Flight GF-7753, A321 departed for Chennai with 125 passengers at 0436 pm with one passenger with high temperature detained and referred to a hospital,” said Singh.

The entire operation to bring these nationals to the airport began at 7 am with tourist buses and taxis used to pick up the nationals from various parts of the city, most of them were picked up from Kondhwa.

Ali Abdulla Al Noaimi, Chargé d’affaires, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain, New Delhi, said the Kingdom of Bahrain supports India’s efforts to combat the pandemic.

“We had a list of all the Bahraini citizens who were in various parts of the country. Some were tourists, some seeking medical services, and most of the nationals were students,” said Ali Abdulla Al Noaimi.

Across India, there are 167 Bahrain nationals in cities like Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. “We began contacting them over the past two weeks and then decided to bring most to Pune as it had the largest contingency of Nationals (126) who were mostly students followed by Chennai which has 44 nationals for medical services,” said Ali Abdulla Al Noaimi.

With all the information in place, the Ministry in Bahrain arranged a special flight in accordance with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to arrive in Pune. The Consul General of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Mumbai, Ali Al Balooshi was in Pune to see to the travel safety of the nationals.