Hundreds of passengers, who arrived from Kuwait by an Air-India flight, were stranded without their luggage at the Mumbai Chattrapati Shivaji International airport after the conveyer belt broke down at Kuwait City airport.

"We reached here at 6:30 in the morning and now it is 1 pm. We have no idea whether our luggage will come or not," Radhakrishnan Pillai an electrician, said.

"We have been offered only a cup of tea by Air-India officials and we don't have any money to purchase food. And the worse part is that nobody is informing us when our luggage will come back to us," Pillai's colleague Raju Padmanabhan said.

Both Padmanabhan and Pillai live in Thirunvelveli, Tamil Nadu and have no place to live in Mumbai. They are worried that they will have to sleep on pavement because there is no way that they can figure out if their luggage will come in time or not.

Pillai said, "We have seen the Korean embassy and many other countries embassies in Kuwait. They are working non-stop and taking out their citizens from Kuwait. But in our embassy no one is bothered. They don't treat us humanly."

Two flights of Air-India left from Kuwait city to take out the stranded Indians on Thursday morning. AI-5854 had 372 passengers and AI-5850 has 396 passengers.

"All my earnings are in my luggage. I don't understand how could Air-India just dump us in plane and fly us without our luggage. All my savings will disappear if I don't get my luggage," another passenger Murigya Pandya said.

Asked about is luggage, Pandya said, "There are some gold ornaments for women members of my family. There is some Kuwaiti dinars and many electronic goods which I bought in Kuwait."

Pandya's colleague, S Sadanand was more concerned about his degrees. "I am an electrical engineer and all my degree are in the luggage. My life will be ruined if I don't get my degrees. I have worked for more than five years in the Gulf and my experience certificates are also in the luggage."

Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava, however, is defensive and said that all the passengers who boarded the plane were told before issuing the boarding pass that their luggage won't accompany them in the plane.

Asked how long it will take for the luggage to come to Mumbai and what arrangements are being made for the stranded passengers, Bhargava said, "I cannot give any assurance in advance about their luggage and as far as staying is concerned, why should Air-India pay for their stay? It is the fault of the Kuwait airport and not of Air-India."