“We are targeting to bring back 100,000 passengers from 60 countries….” says MEA, Read to know more

Around 1 lakh Indian citizens stranded abroad will be evacuated from different countries and brought back to the country by the end of the phase 2 of under Vande Bharat Mission.

“We are targeting to bring back 100,000 passengers from 60 countries by the end of Phase II of Vande Bharat Mission,” said MEA as quoted by ANI.

“Preparations for the third phase are well underway,” it added.

Nearly 3.08 lakh Indians have registered with the mission from overseas to India. The navy will be travelling to Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Iran to bring back Indians stranded abroad.

The second phase of the evacuation mission was scheduled to end on may 22 but it has been extended till June 13. Phase II began on May 17.

As of today, 45,216 Indians have returned. These include 8,069 migrant workers, 7,656 students and 5,107 professionals. About 5000 Indians have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal and Bangladesh, said MEA as per a report by ANI.

“Mission Vande Bharat flies high. Till May 25, more than 30,000 people have returned to India on 158 flights from different countries and more than 10,000 people have flown out of India on 164 flights. Another 49,000 people will be able to fly until mid-June 2020,” said civil aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on wednesday in a tweet post.

Only state-run Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express are involved in the evacuation process. Private airlines may be included in phase III.