Mumbai: The 146 Indian crew members on board the Marella Discovery finally made it home on Thursday. The ship was allowed to drop anchor at an offshore container terminal in Mumbai port. Maqvin Colaso, 29, one of those aboard the ship confirming the news, said, "We have been released from the ship as per regulations. We underwent Covid-19 tests at the port and are now being quarantined in hotels until the test reports are out. If we test negative, then we must home-quarantine until May 6."
Crew members from Goa, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere have been quarantined in different hotels region-wise and travelled on different buses. Their company had made arrangements for quarantine.
However, 32 of the crew had trouble finding a hotel that would let them board. They had left the port premises on a bus around 6pm, after completing formalities but to their dismay, found themselves turned down by two hotels in Mumbai, apparently because of some miscommunication between the agent and the company. Finally, at 9.30pm, the crew managed to find lodgings at a hotel in the Bandra-Kurla Complex.
The Free Press Journal was the first to highlight the plight of the Indian crew on this ship, which was 84 nautical miles from the Mumbai coast, stuck in Indian waters for the last 28 days, as the Centre took its time to decide on the disembarkation of the Indian nationals. They had made repeated requests to the authorities seeking approval to be allowed to land here until matters were resolved late on Tuesday night.
The Marella Discovery had left Bangkok port on March 14, with a crew strength of 653 and since then, had been seaborne for the last 40 days, not taking any guest on board, in view of the pandemic.
