Panaji, Apr 18 (IANS): Apart from hotels and resorts, the Goa government is also in the process of identifying premises owned by temples and churches in the state, to create paid quarantine facilities for more than 8,000 stranded seafarers, who are expected to be repatriated soon.

"Collectors have been directed to start the inspection of the hotels, which were earlier identified by the tourism department and to identify availability of similar rooms with religious organisations such as churches and temples to assess their number and suitability to be used as paid quarantine facilities for the seafarers," a government spokesperson said on Saturday, after a meeting of the State Executive Committee which is overseeing COVID-19 relief operations in Goa.

Goa government's Secretary in-charge of Education has also been directed to prepare a list of suitable hostel facilities attached to educational institutions for quarantining of seafarers, once they arrive in Goa.

The Goa government is currently in the process collecting data related to Goan seafarers, who are currently stranded in different ports-of-call across the world, even as the Central government is in the process of finalising a standard operating procedure for repatriation of seafarers from across the country.

"The Committee also decided to work out a mechanism for pooling of (stranded) tourists in some limited hotels, as there are tourists spread across Goa in different hotels in small numbers to ease operations for the hotels," the spokesperson said.