Two M’luru residents stranded on cruise ship return home

Manglauru: After spending 40 days on board a

cruise ship

that was

stranded

at sea, two Managluru residents

returned

home on Friday. The

duo

had had no option but to stay put on the ship after the

lockdown

was enforced in India.

In all, as many as 23 crew members on board the United Kingdom-based company

Marella Cruises

, had been drifting out on the sea since the lockdown was implemented off the coast of Mumbai. They were all sent back

home

by bus on Thursday. Among the 23 crew members, six are from Karnataka, while the remaining members are from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Hariprasad Rao, cruise front office supervisor, a resident of Kodikal, and Levit D’Souza, who lives in Akashabhavan, arrived in Mangaluru on Friday. The duo duly reported their arrival in the city to police, and are staying in Kavoor at the moment. The bus they came to Mangaluru by arrived via the Hejamady checkpost, where both D’Souza and Rao were subjected to a medical examination before they entered Dakshina Kannada.

Rao said that the cruise ship, with 1,600 passengers on board left Singapore Port on March 14, and docked in at Chennai on March 23. Of the 1,600 passengers, 600 were crew members, among whom there were 145 Indians. “But the port authorities in Chennai, Kochi and Mangaluru refused to allow the ship to dock. The cruise was finally allowed to dock at Mumbai Port on April 23, where the Indian crew members were subsequently quarantined for seven days at a hotel,” Rao told STOI.

On the four Karnataka residents whom they journeyed with, Rao said that there were two from Belagavi, and one each from Mysuru and Dandeli. “All of us were given permission to return home after we cleared the medical test. We underwent tests at nearly 20 places en route to Mangaluru. We have informed the cops, and are staying in Kavoor for now,” he added.