Vande Bharat Mission: First flight from Dubai with 177 passengers arrives at MIA

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, May 13, 2020:   A total of 177 people from the coastal belt including 38 pregnant women have arrived at the Mangaluru International Airport on Tuesday night, May 12, by a special flight from Dubai as part of the Vande Bharat Mission of the Government to bring back stranded Indians from abroad due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Air India Express IX 384 Boeing 737-8HG landed safely at the Bajpe airport,  Mangaluru at 10.04 p.m., with 177 passengers from Dubai. Of the 177 returnees, 88 are men, 84 women, 5 children and 2 infants. Among the women, 45 are pregnant, 25 are medical emergency cases while the rest are those who have lost their jobs or  their visa period has expired..

 

 

 

Arrangements were made to provide SIM card and  health kits to the passengers. Food arrangements were also done. All the passengers were screened and stamped as they have to undergo mandatory quarantine. The Dakshina Kannada district administration officials and the A-I subsidiary staff received the returnees on entering the arrival lounge.

"All the passengers were given santizer to wash hands and told to wear the mask all the time and keep physical distancing as per the protocols," said the official.

As per the standard operating procedure to be observed by all foreign returnees, the passengers were screened and tested to ensure they were asymptomatic and free from the Covid-19 virus.

After completing the formalities, including immigration check and filling the self-declaration form, the returnees were taken in state-run buses in batches for 14-day institutional quarantine in hostels and other places in the coastal city.

Passengers were told to download the mandatory Quarantine app, the Aroygya Sethu app and Apthamitra app before leaving the airport for contact tracing later.

Probationary IAS officer Rahul Shinde, District Health Officer Dr Ramachandra Bairi, Airport Director V V Rao and other health officials were present.

The Dubai repatriation flight was the second to land on Tuesday night in the southern state over an hour after another A-I Express aircraft landed at Bengaluru airport at 8.56 p.m., with 177 returnees, including 42 belonging to Karnataka and 133 to Kochi in the neighbouring coastal state of Kerala.

The first evacuation flight to Karnataka from London landed in Bengaluru on early Monday, with 326 returnees, including three infants.

As part of the government’’s evacuation programme ’’Vande Bharat Mission’’, three more repatriation A-I flights are due to land in Bengaluru from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, San Francisco in the US and Singapore on May 13-15 with over 700 state citizens.

"Another A-I Express flight is due to land in Mangaluru from Doha in Qatar in a day or two with about 180 foreign returnees," the official added.