Aviation Ministry website crashes as Indians abroad scramble to return home amid Covid

A day after Indian government's anuncement that Air India would operate 64 flights between May 7 and May 13 to repatriate around 15,000 Indians stranded in 12 countries, website of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) crashed on Wednesday afteron.

'Our apologies for inconvenience caused'

" MOCA website is down due to unprecedented traffic. Team NIC (National Informatics Centre) is working on it. Details regarding evacuation flights will be put up on Air India website soon. Kindly check re directly. Our apologies for inconvenience caused," ministry said on Twitter at 12.22 PM on Wednesday.

India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb spread of COVID-19. All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period. Consequently, thousands of Indian citizens are stranded abroad. Cargo flights and special flights approved by aviation regulator DGCA are allowed to operate during lockdown period.

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aforementioned 64 repatriation flights would be conducted by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries -- UAE, UK, USA, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

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