(Image source from: hindustantimes.com)

Due to the coronavirus lockdown, Indians are stuck in other parts of the world. Fortunately, India has taken the initiative of launching a massive evacuation operation to bring back everyone stuck. This mission is coined as Vande Bharat.

According to the Press Information Bureau, 2,300 Indians will be brought back today. From Thursday, Air India Flights from New Delhi, Cochin, and Kozhikode to Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Dubai will start operating.

They have planned to bring back 14,800 passengers. Around 300 passengers are coming back from the United States, 250 from the UK, Malaysia and the Philippines, 200 from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Doha, and Dhaka.

On Tuesday, SoPs was given to Air India with the pilots and crews being tested for COVID-19.

Under the Vande Bharat mission, repatriation flights will be leaving India and people who have an OCI card, citizenship of a foreign country, held visa of more than a year of that country, or had the green card of that country are eligible to travel on this flight.

Since March 25th commercial passenger flights have not been operating. The DGCA was allowed to operate only cargo flights, medical evacuation flights, and special flights. Besides, Air India has sent repatriation flights to virus-affected cities like Wuhan in China and Rome in Italy to bring back Indians.

By Neha Makhija