Anxious parents wait outside Loyola School for news of their children. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur/Ranchi, Dec. 27: Parents and families of the 61-member excursion team from Loyola School, which was stranded in Port Blair due to yesterday?s earthquake and tsunami, today heaved a sigh of relief after Tata Steel initiated a move to get return tickets for the group.

The students are expected to be back to the city tomorrow, provided the Indian Airlines accommodates them on its flight from Port Blair.

The team, which included 15 girls, 36 boys, teachers and vice-principal Father Sebastian, left for Port Blair on December 18. It was scheduled to return by ship on December 29.

Family members and school authorities, who spent sleepless nights after learning of the disaster, gathered in the school early this morning and left only after principal Father Augustin Vattamatam assured them at 1 pm that something would be arranged.

According to Father Vattamatam, timely intervention by Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman saw to it that the tickets were arranged. The school and the parents had approached Tata Steel for help. All the expenses incurred in making arrangements for the tickets are being borne by Tata Steel,? he said.

The principal said Indian Airlines officials have assured that they would take all possible steps to ensure that members of the excursion team are accommodated.

The group will land in Calcutta. School authorities said arrangements are being made to bring them back to the city as early as possible. ?If everything goes right, the excursion team will be in the city latest by tomorrow morning,? said school authorities.

S.K. Ganguly, father of Aniket Ganguly, who is part of the excursion team, kept pacing all over the school ground since early this morning for news of the group?s return. ?I cannot describe my feelings. Though my son and the rest of the group are yet to come back, news of their return makes me feel as if he has almost reached home,? said Ganguly.

Vikash Agarwal?s father Pawan Agarwal said: ?I?ve been talking to my son in Port Blair at regular intervals since last morning but nothing gave me so much relief as the news that their return tickets have been booked,? he added.

Amit Roy, husband of one of the teachers accompanying the group, has been in touch with the travel agency arranging for the tickets and Indian Airlines officials. He said, if the need arises, the students might be divided into groups for easier accommodation on the earliest flight back. Roy?s son is also in the team. ?Efforts are on to bring everyone back as soon as possible ? in two groups, if necessary,? he said.

The group said over the phone that they had been waiting outside the airport for confirmation of their flight to Calcutta. On being informed that tickets were being booked, the group expressed relief. ?We are all fine,? said Vineet Kumar, a student, adding, ?the only concern for us at the moment is to get back at the earliest.?

A delegation of parents of some of the Loyola School students stranded at Port Blair met deputy commissioner, Sunil Kumar Burnwal and requested him to take steps so that students could be accommodated in tomorrow?s flight.

The parents told Burnwal that their children informed them this morning that it was uncertain when IA would allow them to travel, although their tickets were booked.

Seven city-based women cricketers, who survived the tsunami in Chennai yesterday, will return tomorrow morning. The cricketers ? Moumika Chakravarty, Gayatri Kumari, Poonam Sony, Abhilasha Prasad, Chinta Kumari, Veena Choubey and Usha Kumari ? are students of Jamshedpur Women?s College (JWC).

The bodies of the two girls, Mamta Kumari and Sagarika Chakravarty, who died in the deluge yesterday, will arrive in Ranchi on Wednesday.

Mamta was a member of the Ranchi University cricket team while Sagarika was the manager of the state women?s baseball team. The cricket team was scheduled to take part in the inter-university cricket tournament to be played at Kalaikudi near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.