26 stranded persons return to Nagaland in special train

File Photo: A view of Dimapur Railway Station. A group of 26 stranded persons reached the station in an Assam-bound special train from Delhi in the early hours of May 14, officials said. (Morung File Photo)

Kohima, May 14 (PTI): A group of 26 stranded persons returned to Nagaland in an Assam-bound special train from Delhi on Thursday morning, officials said.

This was the first batch of stranded persons to return to Nagaland in a train, they said.

The group alighted at the Dimapur railway station around 3.20 am from the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express, an official said.

Of the returnees, 21 are from Nagaland and the rest from Manipur, he said.

All the returnees were screened and the Nagaland residents were taken to a quarantine centre while those from Manipur headed for their home state in a private vehicle, the official said.

Meanwhile, a total of 221 Nagaland residents stranded in other parts of the Northeast returned to the state on Tuesday and Wednesday and have been placed under institutional quarantine in Dimapur, Nagaland Agriculture Production Commissioner and Dimapur convener of the Empowered Group on COVID-19, Kikheto Sema said.

Of the 221 returnees, 31 reached the state on Tuesday and 190 arrived late on Wednesday night, he said.

"The 221 returnees will be screened and if found asymptomatic, will be placed under three days institutional quarantine and then 14 days home isolation. However, those returning in trains from any state will mandatorily be kept in quarantine centres for 14 days," Sema told PTI.

Chief Secretary Temjen Toy had said 70 per cent of the returnees will be quarantined in Dimapur and the remaining in Kohima.