Chartered flight ferries home J’khand migrants from Mumbai
RANCHI/MUMBAI: Over 165 migrant workers were ferried back home to Jharkhand from Mumbai in a chartered flight, which was arranged by the alumni network of a Bengaluru-based law school, making it the first such instance in the country amid the Coronavirus-triggered lockdown, an official statement said. The Air Asia flight carrying 169 migrant workers and five children left the western metropolis at 6.25 am and reached Ranchi, the Jharkhand capital, around 8.25 am, an airline spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the National Law School (NLS) alumni association had taken on lease a 180-seater A320 plane, a first such charter operation by the budget carrier since passenger services resumed in the country.
"Airasia India is proud to be a part of this initiative that helps migrant workers, adversely impacted by the lockdown, reach their homes and families. We have been working closely with the organisers, alumni of the National Law School, who we understand have independently crowdfunded their efforts to assist and repatriate migrant workers from Mumbai to Ranchi," the official said in a statement.
At Ranchi's Birsa Munda Airport, the migrant workers underwent a medical screening and the administration provided them with food packets, before sending them off to quarantine centres in different districts of Jharkhand in buses.
Expressing gratitude to the alumni association of the law school in Bengaluru,
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said, "This is the first time in the country that a plane brought mazdoor back during the lockdown. I appreciate the effort of the Alumni Network of National Law School, Bengaluru."
Shyel Trehan, one of those behind the initiative, said in the statement, "We are happy to have made this very small contribution to addressing a massive travesty. I would like to thank Airasia for all their support."