Published 22:49 IST, April 11th 2020
COVID-19: UK nationals stranded in Gujarat to be evacuated April 13 onwards amid lockdown
While Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in India soared to 7529 cases, India on Saturday has allowed flights from London to evacuate British nationals stuck in India
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While Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in India soared to 7529 cases, India on Saturday has allowed flights from London to evacuate British nationals stuck in India amid the nationwide lockdown. Manoj Gangal, Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA), Ahmedabad has revealed that several flights to London will ferry over 280 passengers in each flight. Flights are scheduled to depart from Gujarat on April 13, 15 and 17.
UK to airlift nationals from Gujarat
The flights on 13th & 15th April will arrive at 1245 IST & depart at 1530 IST for London. The flight on 17th April will arrive at 2100 hours and depart at 2200 IST. Each flight will carry 280+ passengers: Manoj Gangal, Director, SVPIA Ahmedabad. #COVID19 https://t.co/Cz6JuyZbxX
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2020
Chartered flights to London arranged
On Friday, the United Kingdom announced 12 additional charter flights after its first batch of 7 charter flights back on April 6 to evacuate British nationals from Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa. These 19 flights will evacuate a total of 5000 people from India. As of April 6, there were over 35,000 British Nationals stranded in India.
US embassy to evacuate citizens from India
On April 1, the US embassy in India, stated that the US Mission India will arrange several flights from April 4 to transport their citizens back to the US. The embassy stated that US citizens in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan can get in touch with the embassy to facilitate their travel to Delhi from where they will be flown to the US. Flights have yet to fly out US- which has currently overtaken Italy as the 'worst-hit country' with 19,715 deaths.
India evacuates foreign nationals
Earlier on March 27, 170 Japanese nationals were allowed to fly back from Delhi to Narita airport via Japan airlines. Two days prior to that, India facilitated the evacuation of 500 German nationals and 2000 French tourists via special airplanes amid the 21-day lockdown. Moreover, 300 Israeli nationals were also flown out of Delhi to Tel Aviv via an Air India plane. India has also allowed countries like Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and several countries to evacuate their citizens. Currently, India has barred all air travel - both international and domestic amid the spread of Coronavirus lockdown.
22:49 IST, April 11th 2020