Vande Bharat Mission: Over 800 stranded Indians brought home via four flights on May 25

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that over 800 Indians stranded abroad were repatriated on four flights from Dona, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney under Vande Bharat Mission on Monday, May 25.

'Mission of Hope and Happiness'

"Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope and Happiness. 833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi and Ahmedabad on May 25, 2020," Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet on Monday.

Centre launched first phase of Vande Bharat Mission on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to COVID-19 induced lockdown. second phase started on May 16. Last week, Puri had said that over 20 thousand Indian citizens have been brought back to country under mission so far and number will rise furr in coming days.

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'Looking to bring back Indians from 47 countries'

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently anunced that second phase of mission has been extended to June 13. " second phase of this mission began from May 16 onward and this phase will last till June 13. We are looking to bring back our nationals from 47 countries on 162 flights in this phase," MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

"In this phase, we are including places like Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh City, Lagos, etc and also increasing flights to US and to Europe. We also looking at developing Frankfurt as a hub," he added.

Meanwhile, India's domestic flight services resumed on Monday after a gap of two months but a large number of last-minute cancellations by airlines triggered chaos leaving thousands of passengers stranded on airports.

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News ncy PTI quoting aviation industry sources said that about 630 of an estimated 1,150 domestic flights, for which bookings opened on May 22, were cancelled after some states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu allowed only limited operations or delayed reopening of  airports owing to a spike in coronavirus cases. Centre for its part said 532 flights carrying 39,231 passengers were operated on Monday.

READ | Air India reveals bringing back 50 moms-to-be aboard one Vande Bharat flight on May 11

flights were resumed on a day when India registered biggest single-day spike of 6,977 new COVID-19 cases surpassing 6,000 mark for fourth day -- taking its tally to 1,38,845. India is w in top ten worst-affected countries by pandemic, overtaking Iran which was in 10th position with 135,701 cases.

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(With ncy inputs)