Air India Flight
New Delhi: A total of 11.23 lakh Indians stranded overseas have been repatriated so far under Vande Bharat Mission.
“As on August 19, 11.23 lakh Indians stranded abroad have been repatriated by different modes under VBM,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava said during the weekly virtual press briefing here on Thursday.
In the ongoing Phase 5 of VBM around 500 international flights and 130 domestic feeders have been operated so far from 22 different countries and reaching 23 airports across India.
Around 375 more international flights are scheduled to be operated by the end of August 2020.
“Based on a continuous assessment of demand received from our Missions and Posts abroad, flights have been added for repatriation from Kuwait, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, UK and Canada. In addition, number of flights from other GCC countries have been further augmented,” he added.
The spokesman also said that the bilateral air bubbles arrangements with US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, UAE, Qatar and Maldives are functioning well.
He further added that the negotiations with 18 more countries on air travel arrangements viz. Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka are ongoing. “This will benefit stranded Indians and nationals of these countries.”
