Vande Bharat II, Day 4: 3 flights bring over 500 evacuees to Kerala

Three flights, part of the second phase of India's massive repatriation drive dubbed Vande Bharat Mission, landed in Kerala on Tuesday.

An Air India flight from Kuwait with 188 passengers including 10 infants landed in Kannur at 9:10pm while a Kuala Lumpur-Kochi (IX 0683) flight landed at the Cochin airport at 10:15pm.

A Doha flight (IX-0774) landed in Kannur with 177 passengers and 9 infants early Wednesday.

There are three flights scheduled to Kerala on Wednesday (20 May). The Dubai-Kochi flight (IX0434) is expected to land at 6:25pm, the Kuwait-Thiruvananthapuram flight (IX0396) will land at 9:25pm and the Salalah- Koxhikode flight will arrive at 8:40pm.

On Monday, two flights arrived in Kerala bringing 358 passengers.

The first flight (IX0452) landed in Kochi from Abu Dhabi with 173 passengers and 2 infants in board. The second flight (IX0374) arrived at the Kozhikode airport from Doha with 183 passengers onboard.

Two other flights -- Dubai-Mangaluru and Muscat-Hyderabad -- also arrived on Monday.

Phase two of the Vande Bharat mission began on Saturday and will go on until May 22. More than 25 flights in Phase 2 has been scheduled to Kerala. Over 32,000 people from 21 countries are expected to be brought back over the course of the seven days. So far, over 1,88,646 Indian nationals have registered to return.

As per the government's policy for evacuation, Indians having "compelling reasons" to return like pregnant women, elderly people, students and those facing the prospect of deportation are being brought back home.

The government launched the 'Vande Bharat Mission' on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under the phase one of the mission, the government has evacuated a total of 12,000 Indians from the Gulf region as well as countries like the US, the UK, Philipines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives.