nA total of 179 migrants from Chhattisgarh struck in Bengaluru due to Covid-19 lockdown on Thursday flew back to Raipur thanks to students and alumni of two prominent institutions. This was the first time the poor workers had ever got into an aircraft -- and the joy on their faces said it all.

An Indigo flight carrying the passengers, including women and children, took off from Bengaluru around 8 am and landed at the Swami Vivekanand Airport here around 10 am, an airport official in the Chhattisgarh capital said.

"I am happy to have come back safely. I am thankful to all those who helped us return," said Rajni Chandra (28), who carried her two-year-old child in her arms.

Chandra, who worked as a labourer at a construction site in Karnataka, was stuck there after the lockdown was imposed late in March to contain the pandemic.

She was a bit jittery initially as it was her first air travel. She said the journey will remain etched in her memory forever.

A few social organisations in Chhattisgarh decided to bring back by flight over 350 migrant workers from Karnataka. They contacted alumni of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad

Students and alumni from both the institutions rose to the occasion. The alumni of NLSUI paid for the air travel of the 179 migrants. The travel cost of another 174 migrants, set to land here from Bengaluru on June 5, is being footed by alumni of NALSAR.

The returning migrants looked relaxed and happy. For almost all of them, it was their first experience of air travel.

The Raipur district administration made arrangements for medical screening of the arriving migrants at the airport and provided buses to ferry them to their respective districts, an official said.

The passengers will be quarantined after they reach their home districts, he said.