The fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission will commence from July 3 under which Air India will operate 170 flights and bring back Indian nationals from 17 countries. Starting from July 3 to 15, within a span of 13 days, passengers from United States, UK, Canada and Gulf countries will be brought back to the country.
In addition to these Air India has also scheduled flights from Kenya, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Thailand, South Africa, Russia, Australia, Myanmar, Japan, Ukraine and Vietnam. With 38 flights scheduled to the United States, 32 for the UK, a remarkable number of flight operations have been scheduled for the gulf countries as well.
The world’s largest repatriation programme, ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ initiated by the Central Government has already brought back nearly 1,50,000 Indian nationals till date through nearly 700 flight operations from foreign countries, amid the global pandemic.
The Foreign Ministry has said that over 5 lakh people had registered to return via sea, land and air and 3,60,000 people have already returned under this programme.
Keeping in view the large number of Indian citizens living in Gulf countries, 26 Air India flights have been scheduled for Saudi Arabia. In addition to these 136 Air India Express flights, 41 Go Air flights will also be operating, taking the total number of flight operations to 347 under the fourth phase.
The number of flights in this phase is likely to increase with more additions of the private airlines. The government started the special repatriation mission on the 7th of last month to help stranded people reach their destinations in light of the suspension of international flights due to the Corona pandemic.