Air India aircraft are seen parked on the tarmac of the international airport in Mumbai. (Sattish Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)Under its flagship Vande Bharat Mission, India has successfully evacuated more than 30,000 stranded Indians till Monday (25 May) by operating as many as 158 special flights, reports Asian News International (ANI).
“Mission Vande Bharat flies high. Till 25th May, more than 30,000 people have returned to India on 158 flights from different countries & more than 10,000 people have flown out of India on 164 flights,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet on Tuesday (26 May).
“Another 49,000 people will be able to fly till mid June 2020,” he added.
The government had started the Vande Bharat Mission, an exercise to evacuate stranded Indian nationals from different countries, on 7 May and its first phase ended on 15 May. The second phase of the exercise began on 16 May and it shall now go on till 13 June.
It should be noted that on Tuesday (26 May) alone, 3,393 Indians were flown back on 19 flights from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Manila, Cebu, Vancouver, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Birmingham, New York, Moscow, Karaganda, Bishkek and Minsk.
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