As many as 145 Indian crew members, who were stuck on board a cruise ship due to the coronavirus pandemic, disembarked in Mumbai, over a month after it set sail from Thailand, officials said.
The crew members of the cruise ship- Marila Discovery- got down at the international cruise terminal in the city, the officials said.
Talking to PTI, Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) chairman Sanjay Bhatia said that these crew members hail from Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad and other places of the country.
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“They have been quarantined now. They have undergone COVID-19 testing. After their test reports come, a decision will be taken on whether to send them home or not,” he said.
Passengers on the cruise ship had disembarked in Thailand on March 14 after the outbreak of COVID-19, he said.
The ship from Norway had reached Mumbai on April 14, but the crew was not getting permission to disembark, Bhatia added.
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had taken up the matter with the Centre, following which the Union Home Ministry had issued guidelines to enable the crew members of this and similar other ships to disembark.
The state Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had said in a statement on Wednesday that the company, which operates the cruise ship, said that despite leaving Thailand 37 days ago and although no crew member was found coronavirus positive, it was not getting permission to allow the ship to enter the harbor.