New Delhi, May 8 : Expanding the mega Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate stranded Indians
from countries including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, the Government of India has decided to operate flights between various countries and 14 key international airports.
Sources said in Delhi on Friday that of the 14 airports across India including Delhi, as many as ten flights will land in Delhi, four in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kochi nine each, Kozhikode four, Trivandrum (one), Kannur (one), Chennai (nine), Trichy (one), Ahmadabad (five), Srinagar (three), Bengaluru (four), Lucknow (one) and Amritsar (one).
From the nationwide statistics, the people registered for evacuation from across the globe also include 4,147 stranded tourists, 3,041 pregnant women and the elderly and 1,112 Indians who want to return due to death of family members, sources said.
On May 8, Friday, – AI 381 came with 234 passengers from Singapore to Delhi and AI 1242 with 168 passengers from Dhaka to Srinagar.
As many as 14 flights will evacuate stranded Indians from South-East Asian countries and these would presumably
include many youngsters and students from northeastern states.
Five flights each will be operating from Singapore and the Philippines and four from Malaysia. A large number of medical students from northeastern states go to countries like Philippines every year.
160 Indian students reached Srinagar earlier today, May 8, after being evacuated from Dhaka, Bangladesh A student says, "I am happy to be back in Kashmir. We are thankful to Ministry of External Affairs for our evacuation".
other western countries as well.
Sources revealed that seven flights shall take off during Week 1 from 4 airports in the US - New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and San Francisco. Another seven flights will take off from London in the United Kingdom.
A total number of 27 flights shall take off from the Gulf region during Week 1 - UAE-11 (including the 2 that have already landed on Thursday late evening), Saudi Arabia-5, Kuwait-5, Bahrain-2, Qatar-2 and Oman-2.
The government will also operate seven flights during first Week from Bangladesh (including the one that has already landed on Friday) carrying passengers bound for Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Stranded Indians from abroad would be brought from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, Spain and Thailand.
As on Friday evening, a total 67,833 Indians were found eligible under central government's criteria of having
"compelling reasons" to be brought back home.
Four flights have already landed in India. On May 7, 2020 - Air India flight IX-452 from Abu Dhabi to Kochi with 181 passengers and Air India flight IX-344 from Dubai to Kozhikode with 182 passengers.
Sources also said stranded Indians in central Asia as well as in various European countries will be brought back home in the second phase of evacuation beginning May 15.
About 4,500 Indians out of around 27,000 in the Maldives have conveyed their wish to travel back home.
A total of 64 flights carrying approximately 15,000 returnees from 12 countries are expected to land at 14 airports across India from May 7 to 15.
The 67,833 people who have registered and mapped flights, included 22,470 students, 15,815 migrant workers, 9,250 people facing expiry of visas and 5,531 who are seeking evacuation on the ground of medical emergency, the sources said.
Kerala top the list of state-wise break-up of repatriation requests with 25,246, followed by 6,617 from Tamil Nadu and 4,341 from Maharashtra.
A total of 3,715 people from Uttar Pradesh requested for evacuation, 3,320 from Rajasthan, 2,796 from Telangana and, 2,786 from Karnataka, sources said.
The Ministry of External Affairs has developed an online platform on which requests received by Indian missions from Indian nationals wishing to return are regularly being uploaded.
‘Thank You’ is a powerful phrase but often it is not enough to express gratitude to millions of corona warriors but when it comes to Rail men and women – it is never too late to bow down and offer them a gently squeezed hand clasp.
# During the lockdown period, Railways have successfully executed long pending maintenance works like yard remodelling, renewal of scissors crossover, repairs of bridges and tracks.
# Number of pending works were also taken up and completed.
# Around 500 modern heavy duty track maintenance machines along with track, signal and Overhead Equipment maintainers worked round the clock for 10749 machine days to complete overdue track maintenance of 12,270 km plain track and 5263 Nos. of turnouts were also taken up.
# Ultrasonic Flaw Detection (USFD) of 30182 kms of track and 1,34,443 rail welds has been carried out with USFD machines.
# To ensure that kitchens of all Indian homes continue to function normally, between 25th March to 28th April 2020, Railways loaded more than 7.75 lakh tonnes (303 rakes) of PFG freight across the country - compared to about 6.62 lakh tonnes (243 rakes) last year in the same period.
# Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are the leading states in terms of PFG freight loading.
# Railways has been running Parcel Special Trains since the start of the lockdown for perishable commodities including fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products and seeds for agriculture purpose on identified routes.
The central government approved non-stop trains from the states of Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab to the eastern states following appeals from state governments to ferry migrants back to their villages.
An estimated 30 percent of Indians, or about 40 crore, are internal migrants in India. In most states, there is hardly any data and thus there is no established system to ensure their welfare.
Nevertheless, informal workers are the backbone of the urban economy and lakhs survive by cooking food, serving in restaurants, working as house maids, toiling in the construction sector, plumbing toilets, and delivering newspapers and groceries.
"On the occasion of Labour Day on May 1, the Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to run Shramik trains to transport migrant workers, tourists and students stranded across the country," said Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.
Finally, the special trains were run and by May 6, Railway authorities said it would have run a total of 115 Shramik trains to ferry migrants to their home states.
According to an estimate in first four days since May 1, over 67,000 migrant workers have been taken back home.
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