The government launched the Vande Bharat mission on May 7. (Representation)
New Delhi:
The fifth phase of the Indian government’s “ Vande Bharat ” mission, to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in various foreign countries due to air travel restrictions, will begin early next month on August 1.
“As part of the Vande Bharat mission, we have already brought back more than 2.5 lakh of stranded Indians from 53 communes,” Air India said in a statement.
“We will soon announce a series of additional flights as part of phase 5 of the Vande Bharat mission starting August 1, 2020,” the national carrier said.
Flights to USA, Canada, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Australia, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain , New Zealand, the Philippines and several other countries are planned for this phase.
Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said: “As we did earlier, more destinations and flights will be added as this phase progresses.”
More than 7.88 Lakh Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic have returned under the Vande Bharat mission until July 22, the foreign ministry said.
MEA spokesman Anurag Srivastava told a briefing last Thursday that some 1,03976 Indians had returned from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh across the land borders.
The government launched the Vande Bharat mission on May 7. The mission is now in its fourth phase.
Srivastava said that in the fourth phase of the Vande Bharat mission, 1,197 flights have been scheduled so far, including 945 international flights and 252 link flights.
