Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has made isolation arrangements in a private hotel for 80 Puneites to be brought from abroad under the Vande Mataram mission. They will return in batches. The first batch of 23 air passengers is arriving on Sunday.
However, they will have to pay the hotel charges of the 14-day quarantine period. They have been offered the option either of a PMC quarantine facility or a private hotel.
In the coming two days, PMC is expecting 80 air passengers from Mumbai. The government has started flights to bring back stranded Indians from foreign countries. A flight will come to Mumbai late night on Saturday. The State Government will screen these passengers and send them to Pune.
Municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said, “The State government will make arrangements of transportation of these passengers. The flight will land late night on Saturday. After screening them, they will be brought by road to Pune on Sunday morning.”
He said, “We have tied up with a private hotel for their lodging. We will give them options for the hotel based on their per day package. They will take a call on whether to stay in the hotel. After selecting the hotel option, they will be isolated for 14 days. PMC will not pay their lodging charges. They will have to pay the charges.”
23 Indians from Singapore
PMC, Land Acquisition and Estate Department Head Rajendra Muthe said,” The district administration has handed over the first list of 23 Indian citizens (Puneites) from Singapore who will come on Sunday morning to Pune. The district administration has finalised the private hotel located in Baner.”
“As per government guidelines, they will be kept in institutional quarantine for 14 days. We have given them options for the hotel or PMC quarantine facilities. If they want to stay in the hotel, they will have to pay the hotel charges. If anyone has financial constraints, they will have to use existing facilities of PMC,” he added.
The union government has announced the Vande Mataram mission to evacuate Indians stranded abroad. The mission started on Thursday. At present, the government has focused on the Gulf and south-eastern counties. Later, Indians from Europe and other countries will be brought back.
Maharashtra will send seven Air India flights to bring back Indian citizens from nine countries. They are expecting 1,900 passengers to come back to the State.
