Pune, Mar 1 (PTI) Eighty-four MBA students and four faculty members from a Pune-based institute were stranded in Dubai due to airspace closures triggered by the conflict in West Asia, the institute said on Sunday.
The students of the Indira School of Business Studies (ISBS) had gone to Dubai as part of an annual five-day study tour. They were safe and had been shifted to a hotel in Bur Dubai, ISBS officials said.
While 40 students were scheduled to return to Pune on Saturday, the remaining 44 were to board a flight on Sunday. However, due to the West Asia conflict and the subsequent closure of airspace, they could not travel, the officials said.
The university administration is in continuous coordination with concerned government authorities and relevant agencies to ensure their safe and earliest possible return, they added.
“All are safe and have been moved to a hotel,” ISBS Dean Janardhan Pawar said.
The MBA students and staff went to Dubai as part of a study visit. However, the airspace was closed and as a result they were stranded, Indira Group of Institutes Chairperson Tarita Shankar said.
“All students and the staff are safe. We are in constant touch with them. We are also coordinating with the Ministry of External Affairs as well as with the Ministry of Civil Aviation. They will be brought back at the earliest,” she said.
University officials have proactively reached out to all parents and guardians to keep them informed and to assure them of the safety and well-being of their wards, a statement from the office of the Registrar at Indira University informed.
The university has also been in direct communication with the hotel management to ensure all necessary arrangements, comfort and support are provided to the students and faculty, it added.
“The safety and security of students and faculty remain the university’s highest priority. The university is closely monitoring the situation and is confident that, once airspace operations resume, arrangements will be made for their safe return to India at the earliest,” it said.
Rahul Pathak, Indira School of Business faculty member who is with the students in Dubai, said everybody is fine.
“The parents have connected with the students through phone. The stay at the hotel is good, and food is also available. The situation outside the hotel is normal and all the shops are open,” Pathak said.
Meanwhile, the Pune district administration said besides these students and faculty members, another 10 persons from here are stranded in Dubai.
“The district administration has been able to make contact with all of them, and they are safe,” said a statement from the district administration.
Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday.
Flights across the Middle East were disrupted, and air defence fire thudded over Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ commercial capital, it said. PTI COR GK BNM
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