An Air India flight on Friday brought 149 passengers stranded in Kuwait, most of them belonging to the Rayalaseema region, as part of the Vande Bharat Mission.
The Kuwait–Hyderabad–Tirupati flight landed at Renigunta airport at around 1.50 a.m., more than two hours behind the scheduled. Of the 149 passengers, only one got down at Shamshabad airport in Hyderabad.
Maintaining the social distance, the passengers were allowed in batches of twenty each into the airport lobby, where they were welcomed by Chittoor Joint Collector (Development) Veera Brahmam and Revenue Divisional Officer Kanaka Narasa Reddy. The passengers were given sanitisers and masks.
According to airport Director S. Suresh, all the passengers underwent the immigration and customs proceedings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.
Aarogya Setu app
The passengers filled in the self-declaration forms and underwent fever screening conducted by a medical team led by Renigunta PHC chief Madhusudhan Rao. Renigunta village secretariat staff gave them new SIM cards and got the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app installed on their cellphones.
The baggage, which were disinfected by Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) sanitary staff, were later handed over to the passengers.
“All the passengers will be put under quarantine in their respective districts, after undergoing swab tests,” said Raja Sekhar, Special Deputy Collector in-charge of the reception.
Meanwhile, the A.P. Tourism quarantined seven persons hailing from Chittoor district, two from Anantapur and one each from Chennai and Kurnool locally, while the rest were sent through RTC buses accompanied by police escort and special officers from the respective districts.
Special buses
As many as 116 passengers were sent to Kadapa in four buses, while another bus with 22 passengers on board proceeded to Visakhapatnam.
Six passengers each alighted in East Godavari and Nellore, five in West Godavari, four in Vizag and one in Krishna district.
