Kolkata: An international charter flight on Tuesday brought back 173 Bengalis from Kuwait City, marking the revival of repatriation flights to the state after a 44-day gap. The returnees, mostly labourers and professionals, were out of jobs. The last Vande Bharat flight to city arrived on July 5 from Dubai.
The packed GoAir flight, G87442, from Kuwait touched down at the city airport at 6.33pm on Tuesday with all passengers carrying Covid-negative test reports — a mandatory document as per the revised SOP issued by the state.
While previously passengers from abroad were sent for mandatory quarantine stay at hotels or government quarantine centres, as per the revised SOP, the flyer could directly go home on Tuesday where they need to stay in quarantine for the next two weeks.
“I had no job for the last five months and practically survived on cheap boiled vegetables like bottle gourd and pumpkin. At one point, I thought I would die out of hunger in a foreign country without being able to meet my family members. I am glad to be finally back home,” said Suleiman Sheikh, a resident of Amtala, who used to work as an AC technician in Kuwait.
19/08/20 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India
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