Phub Dem

Bhutan Airlines will bring home 93 students from Sri Lanka today.

According to a source, the parents chattered the flight paying Nu 37,000 each. The flight is expected to land today at 4pm.

Meanwhile, Drukair’s new airbus A5-JKW brought home 140 passengers –138 students, one dependent and a minor—studying in Lovely Professional University in Punjab.

The Bhutanese students boarded the flight from Chandigarh on March 28.

The college was closed on March 13 and since then the students were in the college expecting classes to resume soon.

With the lockdown in India, the deputy officer of international affairs of LPU said that special arrangements were made to transfer students from college campus to Chandigarh.

She said that free transportation along with 15 members of LPU including medical staff, administrative officers, and security officials, among others.

Although many believed it was a special flight, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a notification on March 27 stating that the Drukair organised the flight to Chandigarh for a specific government purpose with special approval from the Indian government.

It states that since the flight will return empty from Chandigarh, special approval has also been obtained from the Government of India to bring as many Bhutanese as can be accommodated in the aircraft.

Taking advantage of its capacity, Drukair brought home 140 Bhutanese from Chandigarh; tickets were sold on a first come first serve basis.

Due to the lockdown in India,  the Indian authorities allowed the movement of people from one location to Chandigarh airport only.

“It is not an evacuation flight,” states the press release.

According to Sonia Giri, the students had been studying online through University Management Portal which provides access to study materials. Students can also submit their projects through the portal.

Usually the college had mid-term exams around this time of the year, however, with the lockdown the exam was also postponed until further notice.

However, there are still more than 80 students in the college.

“We are hopeful that both governments would help to evacuate the remaining students in the college,” she said.

Five swab samples from those who had flu-like symptoms were sent to the Royal Centre for Disease Control for testing.