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The first cruise liner carrying 1,450 Goan seafarers who were stranded in various parts of the world arrived at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) on
Thursday morning.

The vessel – ‘Celebrity Infinity’ arrived at the international cruise berth terminal of MPT at 11.30 am. The vessel was supposed to touch the port by 8.30 am, but was delayed by three hours due to the prevailing rough weather condition in the Arabian Sea.

Traffic manager in-charge, MPT, Jerome Clemente, while talking to this daily said,“It was a sort of record created by any cruise liner in India wherein 1450 seafarers were signed off in a single day, just in seven hours,  between 1.30 pm and 8 pm. The throat swab samples of all the seafarers for COVID-19 test were taken by a team headed by Dr Ira attached to the Hospicio Hospital Margao. The reports of the tests could be out by Friday afternoon.”

He said that several other cruise liners could have arrived in other parts of India with seafarers, but the Celebrity Infinity cruise liner is a single-of-its-kind vessel that has brought a total of 1,450 Goan seafarers, who were stranded in different parts of the world, at a time, to Goa.

“The collection of swab samples within seven hours is also a record created by the health authorities,” said Clemente and further added that MPT extended all out support, in a well coordinated manner, to handle the cruise liner on its arrival on Thursday.

 “All the authorities, including MPT and health did a wonderful job in handling both cruise liner and the seafarers on their arrival at the Port. There were no complaints at all from the seafarers and as such the collection of swab samples was completed in a record time,” he added.

“The vessel will remain at the berthing point, till seafarers are issued with test reports for COVID-19. The ship handling agent J M Baxi and Company also delivered best of the services,” he said.