Vande Bharat Mission: Four Repatriation Flights Ferry Back Over 800 Indians Stranded Abroad

"Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope and Happiness. 833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi and Ahmedabad on May 25, 2020," Puri tweeted on Monday.

In a major exercise to evacuate Indians nationals from abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic, four special repatriation flights under the 'Vande  Bharat Mission' flew back over 800 Indian citizens who were stranded abroad in Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

"Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope and Happiness. 833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi and Ahmedabad on May 25, 2020," Puri tweeted on Monday.

Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope & Happiness.

833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne & Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi & Ahmedabad on 25th May 2020.@MoCA_GoI @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/Yv6lQKxX5a — Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 25, 2020

The first phase of the Vande Bharat Mission was launched by the central government on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded abroad on account of the coronavirus induced lockdown imposed by governments across the world. The second phase of ferrying the special flights to bring back Indians started on May 16.

Last week, Puri had said that upwards of 20 thousand Indian citizens have been brought back to the country under the mission so far and the number will rise further in the coming days.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently announced that the second phase of the mission has been extended to June 13.

"The second phase of this mission began from May 16 onward and this phase will last till June 13. We are looking to bring back our nationals from 47 countries on 162 flights in this phase," MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

"In this phase, we are including places like Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh City, Lagos, etc and also increasing flights to the US and to Europe. We also looking at developing Frankfurt as a hub," he added.