Mangalore crash survivor walks away from AI wreckage unscathed

May 23, 2010

MANGALORE: On Saturday, Mayan Kutty, was heralded as the chosen one. A man who walked away from the fiery wreckage which claimed 158 lives with barely a scratch on him. Over 24 hours later, one realizes that while the scars are not visible, they are indeed deeply etched on his psyche.

Kutty's been so traumatised and fearful of flying again that he doesn't ever want to board a plane. At the moment, he has no desire to go back to his job in Sharjah where he works as a salesman. "I'll settle down in my native place in Kannur," he said.

He has another interesting tale to narrate. When he walked away from the wreckage with his passport intact, he was robbed of his cellphone in the hospital when some ministers came to see him. "Someone who came with the ministers stole my mobile," he says ruefully. Of the survivors, he's likely to be out of the hospital first.

Abdulla Puthur Ismail, who was ejected from the plane when it broke into two and lived to tell his tale, has a contrasting outlook. Though he is equally shocked by the tragic incident, he intends to go back to work in Dubai as his livelihood is there. "If I had to die, I would have died on Saturday. If I don't go back to Dubai, I'll starve," he says.

There's a twist in this story too. Abdulla was admitted after the crash to the same hospital which had been booked by his brother for him for routine treatment for a nerve ailment.

Sabrina Huq, a medical student and resident of Dhaka, has injuries on her legs and hands. Shocked as she is by the incident which she thought only ever happened in the movies, she says she was saved because God must have some special task for her in life. She is doing her internship in a college here and intends to complete it.

Joel Prathap DSouza's in a private hospital with some stress to his spinal cord. He's being put through tests to ensure that all's well before he's discharged. Joel went to Dubai on a visitor's visa, got a job and came back to change it into an employment visa.

Another survivor Pradeep G K took the flight to attend his brother's wedding on May 27. He too said he wishes to return to Dubai to earn his bread and butter. Krishnan Kollikunnu hasn't yet figured what to do next

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Manipal's KMC among three private labs in Karnataka approved for COVID-19 tests

coastaldigest.com news network

March 25,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 25: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has so far given nod to three private laboratories in Karnataka for testing COVID-19. The ICMR comes under the Department of Health, Government of India

The three labs are KMC Hospital Manipal, Shankar Research Centre's laboratory, and SRL laboratory on Bowring Hospital Road at Shivajinagar, Bengaluru.

Eight private labs from Maharashtra, two from Haryana, three from Tamil Nadu, four from Delhi, and three each from Karnataka and Gujarat have been given permission.

These labs have over 15,000 collection centres all over the country. Blood samples and throat swabs of coronavirus suspects can be given at these centres.

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This Karnataka city will have world’s longest railway platform by next year

coastaldigest.com news network

June 8,2020

Hubballi, June 8: If everything goes as expected, the railway station in Hubballi, the commercial capital of the state and also the headquarters of South Western Railway (SWR), will have the world’s longest railway platform next year.

E Vijaya, chief public relation officer of SWR, said the work is being done as part of doubling between Hubballi and Bengaluru.

“At present, Hubballi has five platforms, and the number will be increased to eight. Inspection carriage line is getting converted to full platform.

Platform No. 1 will be extended from 550m to 1,400m with 10m width. At present, Gorakhpur’s 1,366m platform is the world’s longest facility,” the officer said.

She added that one more entry point is coming up at Gadag Road. “Rs 90 crore is being spent on the works related to full yard, signalling, electrical and building.

The works, started in November 2019, will be completed in the next one year,” said Vijaya.

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Flight chartered by ‘Expertise’ repatriates stranded Saudi Kannadigas to Mangaluru along with employees

coastaldigest.com news network

June 11,2020

Mangaluru, June 11: The Saudi Arabia based Expertise Contracting Company, which is repatriating its employees to India and other countries, today allocated around 90 seats of one of its chartered flights to Kannadigas stranded in Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf Air flight took off with around 175 passengers on board from Dammam International Airport around noon local time. It is expected to land at Mangaluru International Airport at around 7 p.m. Indian time.

In fact the company had chartered the flights only to repatriate its employees. However, due to the lack of special flights under Vande Bharati Mission, the company decided to help the other stranded Kannadigas in Saudi Arabia, who had approached Saudi Kannadigas Humanity Forum for help.

A company official said that around 2,000 employees from various countries in the Indian subcontinent are being repatriated, of which 1,665 are Indians. Already hundreds of them have reached India, and hundreds are still waiting for repatriation.

“We are grateful to Expertise for allowing to travel in the flight which the company had chartered to repatriate its own employees,” said one of the passengers before boarding the flight at the airport.

Director of Expertise, KS Shaikh said the 20-year-old Expertise group, one of the largest conglomerates in the GCC operating in petrochemical and heavy equipment sectors, has more than 10,000 employees and their family members in the Gulf, mainly in Jubail, one of the largest industrial cities.

Of these, the company has chosen over 2,000 employees for the covid-related repatriations considering various emergencies. He said 12 chartered flights have been engaged to carry out the repatriation exercise to the Indian subcontinent.