Livemint | Vande Bharat Mission: 3.9 million stranded people facilitated since launch

Dec 19,2020

Over 3.9 million people were facilitated international travel ever since the Vande Bharat Mission was launched early in May, said Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday.

Taking to Twitter, Puri shared data that showed that on December 18 (Friday) itself 8,546 Indians returned from various locations such as Sharjah, Dubai, London, Toronto, San Francisco, among others.

"International travel of more than 3.9 million people facilitated ever since we launched the Vande Bharat Mission on 6 May 2020. Now in Phase-7, the mission with 23 active air bubbles has transformed into the largest repatriation mission of its kind," Puri wrote on Twitter.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had, however, on Thursday said that an estimated 1.3 lakh people have been brought back to India under Phase VIII Plus of the Vande Bharat mission.

"Vande Bharat Mission Phase VIII Plus is presently underway since 1 December 2020. This phase is progressing well," said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

"This includes those who have travelled under bilateral air bubble arrangements that we have in place now with 23 countries," he added.

The Phase VIII of Vande Bharat Mission was extended till December 31 earlier this month. A total of 897 flights were scheduled in the phase from 15 countries with the capacity to repatriate an estimated 1.5 lakh people.

The Vande Bharat Mission started in early May to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to Covid-induced travel restrictions.

Ban on commercial flights

International flights to and from India will remain suspended till 31 December, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had said in November, extending an eight-month halt on scheduled overseas flights that was to end on 30 November.

International scheduled flights may be allowed on select routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis, the DGCA had said.

India banned international flights on 23 March as part of steps aimed at combating the pandemic. Domestic flights have been allowed since 25 May in a staggered manner.