The first aircraft to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in UAE has left Kochi for Abu Dhabi. (ANI)
Nearly 200 Indian nationals will return home Thursday in the first two flights from the UAE to Kerala as India begins its biggest ever repatriation exercise to bring back its citizens stranded abroad amidst the international travel lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.
The two repatriation flight of Air India are already airborne from Kerala for Abu Dhabi and Dubai today. Meanwhile, Indian Navy’s INS Jalashwa, has also reached the Maldives to bring back stranded Indian citizens.
Nearly 15,000 Indians stranded overseas are expected to return on special Air India flights from 12 countries over a week, starting Thursday. The government will operate 64 flights until May 13 and use three Navy ships, as part of Phase I of an evacuation plan, named “Vande Bharat Mission”. Of the 64 flights, 15 would be to Kerala, 11 each to Delhi and Tamil Nadu, seven each to Maharashtra and Telangana, and the rest to Gujarat, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, and Uttar Prdesh. (Follow coronavirus LIVE updates )
The evacuees will be medically screened upon arrival and sent to quarantine facilities, for at least seven to 14 days, depending on the states.
Pavan Kapoor, India's Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was seen interacting with Indians who are being brought back under the Vande Bharat Mission at the Abu Dhabi airport.
The first repatriation flight that took off from Kochi reaches Abu Dhabi. It landed almost 25 minutes earlier.
The second Air India Express flight has also left Kerala for the United Arab Emirates to bring back stranded Indian nationals in the Gulf region due to the COVID-19 lockdown, news agency PTI reported.
Evacuees will undergo mandatory quarantine at centres run by Army, Navy and Air Force after which further necessary action will be taken for their onward journey, Ministry of Defence said.
The Indian Embassy in UAE in a tweet said that preparations for the Abu Dhabi-Kochi special flight IX452 have begun. Passengers are currently being screened at the airport.
Passengers inside flights will be seated in a zig-zag fashion, wearing masks. 45 minutes before arrival, announcements will be made inside the flight about quarantine procedures. Travellers will have to fill in self-report forms and submit at the help desk. 15 to 20 people will be deboarded at a time, with one-metre distance between them. At the aerobridge, their temperatures will be checked. Those running a fever will be sent to the isolation bay.
Air India crew on Abu Dhabi to Chocjin Flight.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to utilise the Indian community welfare fund (ICWF), aimed at assisting overseas Indian nationals in times of distress and emergency, for repatriation of economically weaker citizens who are stranded abroad due to COVID-19 pandemic The government has decided to facilitate the return of Indians stranded abroad in a phased manner using aircraft and naval ships but is going to charge fare for such repatriation, it said.
"Fixing fare for repatriation of at the time of distress would further put burden on the migrant labourers who are already out of job and proper shelter, putting them in a vulnerable condition living abroad," the plea, filed through advocate Jose Abraham, said. The plea said that the government authorities should use the ICWF, set up in 2009, which is aimed at assisting overseas Indian nationals in times of distress and emergency in the 'most deserving cases' on a 'means tested basis' for repatriating poor migrant labourers.
Evacuation from Singapore will take place on Friday. Nearly 240 Indians from the city-state who are stranded amidst the international travel lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic will evacuated, the Indian High Commissioner in Singapore said on Thursday. The flight will leave Singapore at 8.35 am for Delhi on Friday with one more scheduled for Delhi and one each for Bangalore and Mumbai, he said. Flights for other destinations like Chennai, Trichy, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Kolkata have also been requested, Ashraf said.
Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar will evacuate Indians in Maldives from May 8
The Indian Navy has launched Operation “Samudra Setu” (sea bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas. Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar are enroute to the port of Male to evacuate people from May 8. The government said only those who test Covid-19 negative would be allowed to travel. INS Jalashwa has entered Male port for the first phase under Operation Samudra Setu to repatriate Indians from Maldives, said the High Commission of India in Maldives.
With Indians stranded in the Middle East to be evacuated from Thursday, elaborate safety measures have been put in place at Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), where the first flight from Abu Dhabi is expected that night. Pilots and cabin crew of Air India’s first batch of flights have been given training in infection control practices, apart from undergoing RT-PCR test. Twelve Air India personnel, including four pilots, were trained by Kochi government medical college. The first flight from Abu Dhabi will have 179 passengers, and the airport is fully prepared to receive them, a CIAL spokesperson said. The aircraft, which has been disinfected, will have a special parking bay and aerobridge.
Caption: Kerala Air India cabin crew. (source: Handout
According to revised plan now, two flights will arrive in Kerala today-- Abu Dhabi to Cochin and Dubai to Kozhikode. Each flight will carry roughly 200 passengers. The Dubai flight is expected to arrive at 10:30 in the night and the Abu Dhabi flight will arrive at 9:40 PM.
More than 4400 Punjabis, including students, stuck in different countries have approached Punjab government with requests to return home. As per data compiled by the Punjab State Covid Control Room, with 621 such requests, Hoshiarpur tops the districts in the state, followed by Ludhiana (538) and Amritsar (532).
However, Punjab NRI Affairs Secretary Rahul Bhandari said the exact details about Punjabis returning home in the first phase were awaited from Centre. He said that Punjabis may be returning on other flights also that will land at other destinations in the country. Bhandari said that Centre had conveyed that around 20,000 Punjabis were likely to return from abroad.
‘Vande Bharat Mission’ will see the operation of 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the Covid-19 lockdown. Once completed, it may turn out to be the largest evacuation operation ever since the 1990 airlift of 1.7 lakh people from Kuwait. India will operate 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five flights to Saudi Arabia, five flights to Singapore and two flights to Qatar to repatriate Indian nationals between May 7 and May 13. During this period, India will also operate seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five flights each to Kuwait and Philippines, two flights each to Oman and Bahrain.’
In one of the largest evacuation exercises since the 1990 Kuwait airlift, the government will operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to bring home thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad under it “Vande Bharat Mission."
Moreover, the Indian Navy has launched Operation “Samudra Setu” (sea bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas. Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar are enroute to the port of Male to evacuate people from May 8. The government said only those who test Covid-19 negative would be allowed to travel. Click here to read more
The Indian Embassy in the US, on Thursday, announced that seven non-scheduled special flights will operate from Saturday to fly back Indian nationals stranded in the US amidst the international travel lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic. A computerised draw of lots would identify the names of the Indian nationals for the special seven flights back home, due to the limited number of seats available
"Since the number of seats on the flights would be limited, passengers with the compelling cases such as those facing medical emergencies or requiring return due to bereavement in the family, students, pregnant women, elderly or those facing expiry of visas will be given priority, and identified through an electronic random selection method," the embassy said.
The first of the series of seven flights will fly from San Francisco to Mumbai and Hyderabad on May 9 and the second flight from the city will fly to New Delhi and Bengaluru on May 13, the Indian embassy here said in a media release. Tickets for these flights range from USD 1362 (over Rs 1 lakh) for economy class to USD 3722 (over Rs 2 lakh) for business and USD 5612 (over Rs 4 lakh) for the First-Class passengers.
Meanwhile, Air India is also evacuating people from India who wish to travel to London, Singapore and select destinations in US operating from May 8 to May 14, 2020. They have also mentioned eligibility criteria for the same on their website.
With over 3,500 fresh cases since Wednesday evening, the coronavirus tally in India breached the 50,000 mark to stand at 52,952 on Thursday. The jump in cases came even as the Centre and state governments continued to chalk out lockdown exit strategies for post May 17. As many as 1,783 deaths have been recorded, the Ministry of Health announced, adding that one person has migrated. Follow more updates here
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that India is standing strong, selflessly, at a time Coronavirus has disrupted lives. On the occassion of Buddha Purnima, he tweeted, "India is standing strong selflessly in these difficult times with those facing trouble in country or abroad."