As many as 356 Indians stranded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the Coronavirus lockdown, arrived at the Chennai International Airport by two Air India Express flights under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ around midnight on Friday.
A special flight from UAE’s Dubai with around 179 Indian nationals including three children landed in Chennai around midnight.
All passengers were screened and tested for Coronavirus. They have be placed under quarantine, as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Another special flight from from Dubai, carrying around 177 passengers also landed around the same time.
The arrival of the Indian nationals was also confirmed by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Passengers have been offered the option of free government quarantine or a paid hotel quarantine, government officials were quoted as saying by NDTV.
Meanwhile, two Air India flights carrying a total of 335 people from the Gulf countries also landed in Kerala’s two airports on Friday night.
National carrier Air India’s repatriation flight from Riyadh carrying 153 passengers, including 84 pregnant women, 22 children and four infants landed at the Kozhikode airport 8 pm on Friday night, while another Air India Express flight from Bahrain with 177 passengers, including 5 infants, reached Kochi airport at 11.32 pm.
Also on Friday, Air India’s first standalone evacuation flight under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ landed at the national capital’s IGI Airport from Singapore carrying 234 passengers.
Two Air India flights had arrived in Kerala on Thursday night. The first flight landed at Kochi from Abu Dhabi with 177 passengers around 10.05 pm, while the second flight at Kozhikode from Dubai with 182 passengers.
The Indian returnees have been short-listed from a database of more than 2,00,000 applicants, who include around 6,500 pregnant women, news agency Press Trust of India quoted Neeraj Agrawal, Consul, Press, Information and Culture at the Indian consulate in Dubai, as saying.
The Centre on Monday had announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7. Under ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ 64 ferry services are to be operated from May 7 to May 13 and is billed as one of the biggest air evacuation missions to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries who have been stranded due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
Under the repatriation plan, the government is facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner.
These special flights are operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries — the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman.
The Government is also deploying a raft of Indian naval ships to undertake the massive exercise. A total of 14 warships have been readied for evacuating Indian citizens from Gulf and other countries amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
Kerala is the biggest source of Indians in the Gulf.
In the first five days, 2,250 people are expected to land at the state’s airports in Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. Kochi port was also set to receive all three ships. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 442,000 people wanted to come back to Kerala, and that the central government had “only” approved the return of 80,000.