Vande Bharat Mission: Two special flights carrying Indians stranded in Riyadh, Bahrain reach Kerala

Kerala: As India's major evacuation mission for stranded Indians the Vande Bharat Mission entered its second day, two flight carrying a total of 335 people from the Gulf countries landed in Kerala's two airports on Friday night.

The first flight from Riyadh carried 153 passengers, including 84 pregnant women, 22 children and four infants. The flight landed at the Kozhikode airport at 8 pm on Friday night, another Air India Express flight from Bahrain with 177 passengers, including 5 infants, reached Kochi airport at 11.32 pm.

pic.twitter.com/qqid6LjUfW — India in SaudiArabia (@IndianEmbRiyadh) May 8, 2020

The passengers were screened for COVID-19 symptoms at the airport before boarding. According to Kozhikode airport sources, the flight from Riyadh carried five people having some health issues and they would be shifted to Manjeri and Kozhikode medical college hospitals.

The passengers were also subjected to thermal test at the aerobridge after they landed in the Kozhikode airport, said sources. Ten passengers from neighboring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also traveled in the flight from Riyadh, the sources said.

Sharing information of the successful evacuations under Vande Bharat Mission Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that 182 Indians from Bahrain, 234 from Singapore, 168 from Dhaka and 152 from Riyadh have landed in India. 

Mission Vande Bharat is picking pace.

182 Indians from Bahrain, 234 from Singapore, 168 from Dhaka & 152 from Riyadh return back on various flights today.

Great effort by @airindiain, our missions abroad & @MEAIndia. pic.twitter.com/EjSQVZxIta — Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 8, 2020

A total of three flights carrying stranded Indians landed in India on Friday. An Air India flight AI 381, carrying 234 passengers, landed in New Delhi from Singapore. An AI 1242 flight from Dhaka landed in Srinagar and the third flight from Riyadh touched down in Kozhikode, Kerala. Two flights had landed at Kochi and Kozhikode on Thursday from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, respectively.

Through the Vande Bharat Mission, 64 flights and three Navy ships will repatriate nearly 15,000 Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.

(With PTI input)