Some corona-free Indians to be flown from Iran & taken to Jaisalmer for being quarantined

NEW DELHI: The process of evacuating Indians from Iran will begin on Friday. Iran Air will fly some Indians to Mumbai on Friday (March 13), said senior officials.
While, a Mahan Air flight will fly some Indian passengers to Delhi on March 15. Passengers of both these flights will directly board from the tarmac of Air India aircraft which will fly them to Jaisalmer for being quarantined at an army facility, sources said.
Last Saturday, a Mahan Air flight had flown to Delhi with swab samples of 108 Indians and it had returned to Tehran with about 200 Iranian passengers from here.These swabs were tested for corona. Indians found corona-free are being to be allowed to fly on subsequent flights of Mahan Air and Iran Air to India.
There are about 2,000 Indians, mostly Shia pilgrims from Kargil, in Iran who have to be flown back. And there are now less than 2,000 Iranians here who have to fly back to Iran.
While no Indian carrier flies to Iran, these two Iranian airlines fly to Delhi and Mumbai. Their flights were stopped by India on February 25 due to the spread of coronavirus epidemic in Iran.
While India had sent special Air India flights for evacuation from Wuhan, the situation with Iran is different as these two airlines fly between Tehran and India — unlike Wuhan with which India does not have direct aerial connectivity.
Therefore, India decided to temporarily allow some flights to operate to fly Indians from Iran back home and Iranians here to Tehran.