COVID-19: ‘Vande Bharat’, One Of The World’s Largest Evacuation Exercise, Begins Today

NEW DELHI: In one of the largest evacuation exercises named “Vande Bharat Mission“, the government will operate 64 flights between May 7 to 13 to bring home nearly 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.

India will send 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US, the UK, Malaysia and Bangladesh, five flights each to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Philippines, Singapore and two to Qatar, Oman and Bahrain to repatriate Indian nationals, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

#VandeBharatMission, Evacuation of stranded Indians abroad begins today; here is the plan for today; in total over 14,800 stranded Indians will be brought back from 12 countries this week#IndiaFightsCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/OzpTWjF8yU

— PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 7, 2020

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said on May 5 had said that preparations for the operation have commenced and also urged the stranded individuals to stay in touch with the Indian embassies in their countries.

Commenced preparations for Vande Bharat Mission. Planning underway for stranded Indian nationals to return home starting 7th May. Urge them to keep in regular touch with their Embassies. pic.twitter.com/uFtNijO3DO

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 5, 2020

The government said only those who test Covid-19 negative would be allowed to travel.

Priority will be given to “compelling cases in distress”, including migrant workers/labourers who have been laid off, short term visa holders faced with the expiry of visas, persons with medical emergencies, pregnant women, the elderly, those who are required to return due to death of a family member, and students.

These special flights will be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express.

Passengers will be charged Rs 50,000 each for London-Delhi/Mumbai/Ahmedabad/Bangalore flights and Rs 12,000 for Dhaka-Delhi flight. Passengers being repatriated from the US will be charged Rs 1 lakh, while those from Dubai will have to shell out Rs 13,000.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will give travellers two days notice with the schedule (day, place and time of arrival) of the incoming flight on its website.

Onboard, the health protocol announced by the MoCA will be applicable.

On arrival, all passengers will undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for a minimum of 13 days, at their own cost.

The Aarogya Setu mobile app is mandatory for travellers.

Out of the total, 15 flights will bring back people to Kerala followed by eleven flights each to Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

Seven flights will be flying back people to Maharashtra and Telangana whereas five flights are slated for Gujarat.

The maximum number of flights in the first week of repatriation will bring back citizens from the Gulf countries.

More than 350 Indians from UAE will be flying back home today as India starts one of the world’s biggest repatriation process.

Meanwhile, Navy has also sent three of its ships under Operation Samudra Setu to get back stranded citizens from Maldives and UAE.

INS Jalashwa and INS Magar will get back Indians from the Maldives while INS Shardul has been diverted to Dubai to get back the expatriates.

India’s High Commissioner to Maldives Sanjay Sudhir told media persons that elaborate arrangements have been made for the evacuation of Indian citizens.

The evacuated personnel will be disembarked at Kochi, Kerala and entrusted to the care of state authorities.

India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

from League of India