Continuing their efforts to reach out the tourists from Maharashtra stranded in earthquake-ravaged Nepal, the officials of the Maharashtra Government got in touch with more than 1,000 such tourists till Sunday evening and reported that all were “safe” in the Himalyan State.
In what came as a relief to the Maharashtra Government and also their relatives, there were no official reports about the death of any tourist from Maharashtra in the massive earthquake that claimed over 2,000 lives and left a trail of destruction in Nepal.
“Till this evening, we contacted more than 1,000 tourists from Maharashtra who are currently in Nepal. All of them are safe. Several of them are at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, waiting to return to Mumbai. The others are staying safely in various hotels,” Suhas Diwase, a senior officer of the Relief and Rehabilitation Department of the Maharashtra Government told The Pioneer here on Sunday evening.
Diwase said that the disaster management cells, set up in Mumbai and New Delhi by the Maharashtra Government, were in touch with both the stranded tourists and their relatives in Maharashtra. “We have also been told by the tourist companies operating tours to Nepal that as many as 200 tourists taken by them are safe in Nepal,” he said.
A separate news release, issued by the office of State Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was making arrangements to bring all the tourists stranded tourists from Maharashtra.
“Of the stranded tourists from Maharashtra, 60 were brought back to New Delhi by the MEA through a C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift plane. We are giving priority to evacuate the stranded women and children,” a senior official said.
A sizeable number of tourists are expected to be air-lifted by the special flights organised by the MEA as part of the evacuation operation undertaken by Indian Government.
Meanwhile, Additional Resident Commissioner Samir Sahai of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi is coordinating the relief efforts on behalf of the Maharashtra Government.
In a related development, a team 15 mountaineers from Mumbai, who had gone for an expedition to Mt. Annapurna, the 10th highest peak in the world standing at 26,545 feet, are reported to be safe and have reached Kathmandu.
"The 15 trekkers are officers in the Sales Tax Department of the rank of Deputy Commissioners and Joint Commissioners. They comprise three joint commissioners and 12 deputy commissioners. We are grateful to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for helping them in this crisis," a participant from the trekking expedition said.