Mangaluru does it again: Green Corridor created for organ transport

Bengaluru, Apr 13: Fifteen new positive cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of affected in the state to 247, the Health department said on Monday.

"Fifteen new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon.... Till date 247 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 6 deaths and 59 discharges," the department said in a mid-day situation report.

Among the 15 new cases thirteen are contacts of patients already tested positive, while one from Dodabballapura in Bengaluru Rural is with a travel history to Delhi, the other from Bengaluru city has Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

Among the 13 contact cases tested positive four are from Hubballi in Dharwad district, three each from Malavalli in Mandya district and Raibag in Belagavi, two each from Bidar, and one from Mudhol in Bagalkote district.

Three out of 15 new cases are children- a 8 year-old girl from Malavalli in Mandya, 16-year old girl from Bidar and 14-year old boy from Raibag in Belagavi.

From across the state most number of infections have been reported in Bengaluru with 77, followed by Mysuru (48) and Belagavi (17).

Those discharged include 27 patients from Bengaluru, nine from Mysuru, seven from Dakshina Kannada, six from Chikkaballapura, three from Davangere, two each from Uttara Kannada and Kalaburagi, and one each from Udupi, Dharwad and Kodagu.

Among the dead, two are from Kalaburagi and one each from Bengaluru, Bagalkote, Gadag and Tumakuru.

Hassan, Mar 13: In what could have been a major tragedy, an under construction flyover across Hassan-Mangaluru railway level crossing, near the new KSRTC Bus stand here collapsed today.

Fortunately no casualties occurred despite six concrete beems of 50 feet height, collapsed and broke into pieces.

The much awaited project was completely neglected by the successive governments for over a decade due to politics.  It was sanctioned eight months ago.

The Rs 42 crore project was taken up by a joint venture between state, center and South Eastern railway. The contractor or the Engineer were not present when the incident occurred.

Blaming the contractor, the locals alleged that poor quality of work led to the incident. No contractor or engineer was present even during construction, they added. Siddaiah, who runs an eatery near KSRTC bus stand said that it could have been a major tragedy if people were underneath the flyover when it crashed. The incident should be probe and the contractor should be punished, he added.

Mangaluru, May 26: Days after the government of India approved the use of chartered flights for the repatriation of Indians stranded across the world amidst covid-19 lockdown, two NRI entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia have offer to bear the cost of repatriation if they get formal green signal to repatriate stranded Indians from Dammam to Mangaluru International Airport before June 5.

Althaf Ullal and Basheer Sagar, the two Kannadiga Directors of Al Khobar-based Saqco, have made this offer in a letter written to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The duo have assured that their company will bear the cost of the first chartered flight from Dammam to Mangaluru if the government paves way for its operation by June 5. 

It is learnt that many private airliners have come forward to operate chartered flight and are waiting for final clearance from the government. It will cost approximately Rs 45 lakh to hire chartered flight with 180 capacity from Dammam to Mangaluru. 

Pregnant women, medical emergency cases, senior citizens on visit visas, those who lost jobs due to lockdown among other stranded Indians will be given priority in this flight, they said.

"Our company will completely bear this cost. Passengers only need to bear the cost of institutional quarantine after reaching Mangaluru," they have clarified.