Vande Bharat Mission: 331 stranded Indians from UK reach Hyderabad

As part of the biggest ever off- shore evacuation drive of Indian citizens under the Vande Bharat Mission, an Air India flight carrying 331 people stuck in the UK, landed at the international airport here on Tuesday.

The national carrier, a Boeing 773 aircraft from the UK arrived at 02.21 AM, airport sources said. Later, the same aircraft departed with 87 passengers to the US via Delhi.

The passengers were serviced through the fully sanitized international arrivals of the main passenger terminal. The airport authorities had fully sanitised and fumigated the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from aerobridge to arrivals ramp.

All the passengers and aircraft crew were brought from the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 people each.  Each passenger or crew member was screened by the thermal cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit under as per the directives of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare prior to Immigration formalities.

After the health screening of passengers, CISF personnel in their protective gears escorted the group of passengers to immigration clearance, they said. Till now, the GMR Hyderabad international airport has handled arrivals of four evacuation flights from various countries including the US, UK, Kuwait, UAE repatriating over 750 Indian citizens stranded off-shore. All these passengers were taken for quarantine at designated places by the Telangana government upon their arrival here.