Air India flight carrying first batch of 168 Indian students from Dhaka reached Srinagar today while another flight from Singapore carrying 234 stranded Indian nationals landed in Delhi under Vande Bharat Mission. In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar welcomed them.
He thanked Air India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Immigration, Delhi Government and Jammu and Kashmir Government for cooperation and support.
He appreciated the exemplary effort of Team Indian Embassy led by High Commissioner Jawed Ashraf in Singapore. He also lauded the efforts of High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das and her Team Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
As per reports, 168 students who were stranded in Bangladesh reached Srinagar today after being airlifted from Bangladesh.
Deputy Commissioner Badgam Tariq Hussain Ganai received these students at Srinagar International Airport and expressed gratitude to Govt of India, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation for airlifting these students.
He further said that under “Vande Bharat Programme”, the return of these stranded students from Bangladesh was possible. The students who reached Srinagar belonged to various districts of the valley. These students shall also have to undergo the necessary administrative quarantine.
Flight carrying 152 expatriates from Riyadh has arrived in Kozhikode in Kerala a short while ago.
One more flight is scheduled to arrive toninght in Kochi from Manama in Bahrain as part of the Vande Bharat Mission.
The medical screening and other formalities are going on. After detailed checkup, people with symptoms will be shifted to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital and others will be send to State Covid Care centres for compulsory quarantine except pregnant women and small kids who will be sent for strict home quarantine.
The flight from Manama to Kochi airport carrying 177 passengers, is scheduled to arrive today at 1:30 pm.
Meanwhile INS Jalashwa carrying 739 people from Maldives will arrive in Kochi port day after tomorrow.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that all necessary arrangements and preparations are being done in all airports and ports of the State, ensuring proper containment of Covid 19 in the state. Meanwhile Kerala confirmed one positive Covid 19 case today while 10 people recovered from the disease. Presently only 16 active cases are there in the State.
Embassy of India, Riyadh said, the flight carried 152 passengers including four infants. The passengers mainly consist of stranded workers and medical cases, including pregnant ladies. All passengers have been screened for COVID-19 symptoms prior to boarding.
This is the first of five flights scheduled from the Kingdom to evacuate Indian nationals in the first phase. The next scheduled flight is from Riyadh to Delhi on 10th May, followed by a flight from Dammam to Kochi on 12 May and two flights from Jeddah to destinations in Kerala later in the week.
Flights to additional destinations in India are being explored in the coming week for which separate notifications would be issued shortly.
India’s Ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Dr Ausaf Sayeed in an exclusive talk with AIR News said that they are trying hard to send back as many people especially those in distressed situation.
Two of the Vande Bharat Mission special flights are scheduled to reach Chennai Airport by midnight tonight. They are to arrive with a total of four hundred passengers from Dubai. Originally the first flight was scheduled to land in the afternoon and another in the midnight. However, the Airport authorities have said the timings have been rescheduled.
Consul General Vipul told our Dubai correspondent that passengers on these two flights include almost 200 workers, 37 pregnant women and 42 medical cases. Rest are elderly people, stranded tourists and families of those travelling.
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