In the first week (May 7-13), Air India will operate 64 flights to 12 countries on which we expect to bring ba…Read More
NEW DELHI: A massive airlift operation will get underway on Thursday with 64 flights bringing back close to 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries in the first week of the ambitious exercise to repatriate lakhs of people. The operation, as foreign minister S Jaishankar said in a tweet, is titled ‘Vande Bharat Mission’.
Commenced preparations for Vande Bharat Mission. Planning underway for stranded Indian nationals to return home st… https://t.co/EHcvyM726w
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) 1588682649000
Apart from the Gulf, official sources said, non-scheduled commercial aircraft will fly out stranded Indians from the US, the UK, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The number of Indians lining up to return is expected to far exceed the 1,90,000, who initially registered and could be as many as 4 lakh, civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said.
The return of lakhs of Indians over the following weeks marks a new challenge for India’s war against Covid-19 as the returnees will need to be screened and placed under institutional quarantine or admitted to hospitals if they show symptoms. All states, particularly those like Kerala and Maharashtra, need to prepare large facilities to hold passengers in isolation for quarantine and testing.
Flying back from the US and the UK to India will cost